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Synonyms

pickpocket

American  
[pik-pok-it] / ˈpɪkˌpɒk ɪt /

noun

  1. a person who steals money, wallets, etc., from the pockets of people, as in crowded public places.

verb (used with object)

  1. to steal (a wallet, money, etc.) in the manner of a pickpocket.

  2. to steal from (a person) in the manner of a pickpocket.

pickpocket British  
/ ˈpɪkˌpɒkɪt /

noun

  1. a person who steals from the pockets or handbags of others in public places

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of pickpocket

First recorded in 1585–95; pick 1 + pocket

Explanation

A pickpocket is a criminal who steals things from people's pockets or bags. Your grandmother might warn you to be on the lookout for pickpockets when you travel to Paris. Pickpockets take advantage of crowded situations to slide wallets, phones, and cash out of victims' pockets, and when they do this, you can say that they pickpocket. Probably the most famous literary pickpocket is Charles Dickens' character The Artful Dodger, from "Oliver Twist." Before pickpocket was coined, around 1590, they were called pick-purses, for obvious reasons.

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A delivery driver by day, he started filming pickpocket moments after saying he witnessed them almost daily, before posting them online.

From BBC • Oct. 25, 2025

His initial meeting with Grace, a pickpocket he picks up because she may hold a key to the keys, is flat, rather than charming.

From Salon • Jul. 12, 2023

She passes like a ponytailed Pistol Pete Maravich and she has the sticky fingers of a subway pickpocket.

From Washington Post • Mar. 29, 2023

In a column, The Chicago Tribune’s film critic, Michael Phillips, called Sightline “a bush-league pickpocket move” and “the latest tiny nail getting tap-tap-tapped into the coffin currently under construction for an entire era of filmgoing.”

From New York Times • Mar. 5, 2023

“Act One, Scene Six is the pickpocket scene, right?” asks Taylor, because she's also the kind of person who pretends to ask a question just to show off what she already knows.

From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.