pickpurse

See also: pick-purse

English

Alternative forms

• pick-purse

Etymology

From Middle English pikepurse, pykeporse, equivalent to pick +‎ purse.

Noun

pickpurse (plural pickpurses)

1. (obsolete) Someone who steals purses, or money from purses.
   • 1548 January 18, Hugh Latimer, Sermon of the Plough‎^[1], quoted in Sermons by Hugh Latimer, Cambridge University Press, published 1884, page 71:

     Down with Christ's cross, up with purgatory pickpurse, up with him, the popish purgatory, I mean.

   • 1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1, scene 1:

     No, it is false, if it is a pickpurse.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:pickpocket

See also

• cutpurse

References

• “pickpurse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• pickers-up