Synonyms

yegg

American

[yeg] / yɛg /

noun

Older Slang.

a safecracker.
an itinerant burglar.
thug.

yegg British

/ jɛɡ /

noun

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

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