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Webster 1828 Edition


Thief-taker

THIE'F-TAKER

,
Noun.
[thief and taker.] One whose business is to find and take thieves and bring them to justice.

Definition 2024


thief-taker

thief-taker

English

Noun

thief-taker (plural thief-takers)

  1. (now chiefly historical) Someone whose job it is to find and capture thieves.
    • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin 2013, p. 63:
      In the later 1690s Rewse became a successful thief-taker, reaping large rewards for the capture of Jacobite conspirators, clippers, and coiners.