pickpockets

noun

plural of pickpocket
as in thieves
a person who steals money and other things from people's pockets and purses

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pickpockets Part of my strategy for warding off would-be pickpockets is investing in accessories with anti-theft design details. — Sophie Dodd, Travel + Leisure, 23 Aug. 2026 Think of it like a team of pickpockets, one of which walks up to ask you for directions while the other swipes your wallet. — Alan Henry, PC Magazine, 10 July 2026 Said purse needs to be roomy enough to fit all of my travel essentials, but also secure enough to keep my stuff safe from pickpockets. — Jamie Allison Sanders, PEOPLE, 3 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pickpockets
  1. thieves
  2. robbers
  3. swindlers
  4. racketeers
  5. vandals
  6. gangsters
  7. hoodlums
  8. ruffians
Noun
  • For more than a week, there wasn’t much news or fanfare that thieves stole more than 40,000 pounds of Milwaukee-founded Pabst Blue Ribbon, or PBR, beer from a Montclair distribution center.
    — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026
  • In September 2025, thieves snatched three porcelain works worth millions of dollars and classed as national treasures in a heist at the Adrien Dubouche National Museum in Limoges in central France.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of thieves
Noun
  • The robbers have ordered the victims to unlock their cellphones, and have fled on foot after taking the phones.
    — Dylan Olsen, CBS News, 23 Aug. 2026
  • Police say the robbers took $50 from one of the chicken stand workers, and $60 from the other.
    — Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of robbers
Noun
  • The decade ended tumultuously, with the Osmond family’s fortune drained by a series of swindlers and grifters.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2026
  • This scam, according to Kent, could be proliferated with the use of AI, which can allow swindlers to enroll in many different college programs at once.
    — Peter D'Abrosca, FOXNews.com, 21 Jan. 2026
Definition of swindlers
Noun
  • Of course, entrusting waste management to gangsters and racketeers has repercussions.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 8 July 2026
  • The characters were based on a real family of bookmakers and racketeers who once lived in England.
    — Sarah Moore, Freep.com, 5 Mar. 2026
Definition of racketeers
Noun
  • The automatic license plate-reading cameras continue to spark debate across Minnesota, with some cities cutting ties with the technology, as other cities deal with vandals taking matters into their own hands.
    — Ubah Ali, CBS News, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Flock’s privacy reforms aren’t enough for camera vandals Protesters rally against the use of Flock cameras outside City Hall in Troy, NY.
    — Kayla Hayempour, NBC news, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of vandals
Noun
  • The bodies start piling up – and business booms – but the growing enterprise puts the trio in the crosshairs of the powerful gangsters and underworld figures in the lawless border town of Saribgunj.
    — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Duane Keith Davis is accused of orchestrating Shakur’s killing in September 1996, and the lore of other rappers and gangsters looms large over his trial.
    — Aditi Sangal, CNN Money, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of gangsters
Noun
  • In the past decade, the leadership of the Kinahan organization has become rich and cosmopolitan, and their life styles have started to resemble those of international businessmen more than of street hoodlums.
    — Ed Caesar, New Yorker, 30 Apr. 2026
  • The first pictures McCullin took were of hoodlums and down-and-outs, subjects that reflected his own hardscrabble background.
    — Andrew Pulver, Air Mail, 31 Jan. 2026
Definition of hoodlums
Noun
  • The series has lent a cinematic gangster attraction to the Peaky Blinders, yet the term itself was not one gang — as depicted in the show — but a generic expression from the late 19th century for the ‘street ruffians’ of Birmingham, born out of the city’s ring of poverty.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2026
  • In fact, the GTW ruffians have to give the Big Honey some props for his relative restraint in the heat of the moment.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 28 Feb. 2026
Definition of ruffians

Browse Nearby Words

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Cite this Entry

“Pickpockets.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pickpockets. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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