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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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

North Carolina thinks a Yankee yegg grabbed its historic document during the Civil War when General William Tecumseh Sherman tramped through Raleigh.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the yegg is just a softie under his shell.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then he told how an idea had come to the mind of an idle yegg named "Missouri" Horton.

From Stories from Everybody's Magazine by Various

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