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Synonyms

yegg

American  
[yeg] / jɛg /

noun

Older Slang.
  1. a safecracker.

  2. an itinerant burglar.

  3. thug.


yegg British  
/ jɛɡ /

noun

  1. slang a burglar or safe-breaker

"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 yegg

First recorded in 1925–30, of obscure origin; the proposals that the word is from German Jäger “hunter” or that it is the surname of a well-known safecracker are both very dubious


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.

See Examples For:

Sometimes, though, past and present combinations commingle in the mind, leaving men to huddle in the cold like hapless burglars while waiting for the frozen-fingered deciphering of the head yegg.

From New York Times ● May 22, 2012

Except for a series of cartoons, showing Tammany as a little yegg in a tiger-striped sweater, Mr. Hearst subsequently published nothing very damaging to the Brown Derby.

From Time Magazine Archive

Stranded Thomas "Red" Moran is young, anemic and a hardboiled yegg.

From Time Magazine Archive

There the discarded lemon can be stuffed with colorful yegg and luscious tomato, wrapped in the right sort of cabbage, and served to the public as something called a rehash.

From Time Magazine Archive

The common yegg habit of pouring an explosive fluid into the cracks of a strong box is obsolete.

From Blacksheep! Blacksheep! by Meredith Nicholson

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