light-fingered

/'lait,fiɳgəd/
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Thân thiện
light-fingered

A shopkeeper watches a light-fingered customer near the jewelry counter.

Definition
  1. Adjective:
    • Having a tendency to steal; thievish: Used to describe a person who steals, especially in a skillful, quick, or sneaky manner, often without being noticed.
    • Nimble-fingered; dexterous: Used literally to describe someone who has agile, skillful fingers, though this sense is less common and often carries a negative connotation related to theft.
Usage
  • The primary and most common use of "light-fingered" is to describe a person who steals, particularly a pickpocket or a shoplifter. It implies stealth and skill.
  • It is almost always used attributively (before a noun) or predictively (after a linking verb like 'is' or 'was').
  • The term is informal and slightly euphemistic, often used in journalism or storytelling.
Examples
  • Adjective:
    • Be careful with your wallet in the market; it's full of light-fingered individuals.
    • The store installed new cameras to deter light-fingered customers.
    • The magician was so light-fingered that the coin seemed to vanish into thin air. (This example uses the literal, dexterous meaning, which is rarer.)
Advanced Usage
  • "Light-fingered gentry": A humorous or old-fashioned collective term for thieves or pickpockets.
    • The fair attracted crowds, and with them, the light-fingered gentry.
  • The term can be used figuratively to describe a very delicate, deft, or subtle quality in non-criminal contexts, as in the magazine quote, though this is advanced and literary.
Variants and Related Words
  • Light-fingeredness (noun): The quality or practice of being light-fingered; thievery.
    • His light-fingeredness eventually got him arrested.
Synonyms
  • Thievish: Having the character or habits of a thief.
  • Kleptomaniacal: Relating to a compulsive urge to steal (more clinical).
  • Dexterous: Skillful with the hands (neutral, without the connotation of theft).
  • Nimble-fingered: Having quick, light movements of the fingers (neutral).
Antonyms
  • Honest: Free of deceit and untruthfulness.
  • Clumsy: Awkward in movement or in handling things.
Related Idioms and Phrases
  • To have sticky fingers: An idiom with a very similar meaning to being light-fingered; prone to stealing.
    • Don't leave him alone with the cash register; he's known to have sticky fingers.
  • Five-finger discount: A slang term for shoplifting.
    • He got that watch with a five-finger discount.
light-fingered

A shopkeeper watches a light-fingered customer near the jewelry counter.

Adjective
  1. having nimble fingers literally or figuratively; especially for stealing or picking pockets
    • a light-fingered burglar who can crack the combination of a bank vault- Harry Hansen
    • the light-fingered thoughtfulness...of the most civilized playwright of the era- Time

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