second-story man
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of second-story man
First recorded in 1900–05
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 woman catches a second-story man in her house, engages him in conversation, gives him a drink to get his fingerprints.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Yes, but this business doesn't make me feel like a pirate—more like a second-story man!"
From The Palace of Darkened Windows by Edmund Frederick
Twice a day, during the last ten days, the wiry little ferret-faced second-story man had got away with at least one can from the prison commissary.
From O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 by Edison Marshall
Sam was no second-story man; he worked on the ground floor in broad daylight.
From Otherwise Phyllis by Charles Dana Gibson
The draught moving through the hall stirred the portière and reminded him that the window in the trunk-room was still open, an invitation to any enterprising sneak-thief or second-story man.
From The Brass Bowl by Louis Joseph Vance
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.
