Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having quick and nimble fingers.
- adjective Skilled at or given to petty thievery.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Light in touch with the fingers, as in playing the piano.
- Dexterous in touching and taking; thievish; addicted to petty thefts: applied particularly to pickpockets.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Dexterous in taking and conveying away; thievish; pilfering; addicted to petty thefts.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Given to
thievery . Given toshoplifting .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having nimble fingers literally or figuratively; especially for stealing or picking pockets
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Leave us face it, there is an awful lot of lettuce rolling loose in this fair city and I fear it is far too great a temptation for one as light-fingered as yourself.
Michael Winship: Making Ends Meet in Coin-Operated Washington Michael Winship 2010
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But when he finds them, he also finds that he has competition: a certain light-fingered feline named Kitty Softpaws Salma Hayek.
Marshall Fine: Movie Review: Puss in Boots 3D Marshall Fine 2011
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I was on this afternoon and could not find my new pot of silver eye paint—I suspected the light-fingered Becka Marshall.
Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011
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Leave us face it, there is an awful lot of lettuce rolling loose in this fair city and I fear it is far too great a temptation for one as light-fingered as yourself.
Michael Winship: Making Ends Meet in Coin-Operated Washington Michael Winship 2010
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I was on this afternoon and could not find my new pot of silver eye paint—I suspected the light-fingered Becka Marshall.
Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011
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Possibly some slant-eyed, light-fingered pickpocket was even then enjoying the fifty-odd yen his purse had contained.
In Yeddo Bay 2010
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Steinmeyer takes pains to explain how hard it was even for someone as light-fingered and ingratiating as young Howard to become and remain a headliner.
Jim Steinmeyer's "The Last Greatest Magician in the World" 2011
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Being light-fingered with the past is not always unforgivable, and sometimes it's necessary: it is disappointing to know that Mozart and Salieri got on rather well, and classicists might moan about the savaging of the past in Gladiator, but they are great stories.
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Steinmeyer takes pains to explain how hard it was even for someone as light-fingered and ingratiating as young Howard to become and remain a headliner.
Jim Steinmeyer's "The Last Greatest Magician in the World" 2011
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This week they discovered the thief's identity and were stunned to find it was an inside job – the light-fingered scallywag lives on the course.
Luck runs out for Kansas Jayhawks fan's talismanic T-shirt and shorts 2011
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