rogues' gallery

American  

noun

1. a collection of portraits of criminals and suspects maintained by the police for purposes of identification.

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rogues' gallery British  

noun

1. a collection of photographs of known criminals kept by the police for identification purposes

2. a group of undesirable people

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rogues' gallery Idioms  

1. A police collection of pictures of criminals and suspects kept for identification purposes. For example, The detective went through the entire rogues' gallery but couldn't find a match with the suspect. [Mid-1800s]

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Etymology

Origin of rogues' gallery

First recorded in 1855–60