Meanings
comparative lighter-fingered · comparative more light-fingered · superlative lightest-fingered · superlative most light-fingered · alternative lightfingered
- figurativelyHaving nimble fingers, especially for stealing or picking pockets (pickpocketing), given to thievery or shoplifting.
There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling; […] yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind.
1848 June 28, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Before the Curtain”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], →OCLC, page vii
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivehaving nimble fingers literally or figuratively; especially for stealing or picking pockets
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From light (“not heavy”, adjective) + fingered (“having fingers”, adjective).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian изкусен, сръчен
- изкусен (izkusen)having quick, light and nimble fingers
- сръчен (srăčen)having quick, light and nimble fingers
- крадлив (kradliv)given to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
Chinese Mandarin 手指靈巧的 /手指灵巧的, 巧手的
- 手指靈巧的 /手指灵巧的 (shǒuzhǐ língqiǎo de)having quick, light and nimble fingers
- 巧手的 (qiǎoshǒu de)given to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
Finnish näppäräsorminen, pitkäkyntinen
- näppäräsorminenhaving quick, light and nimble fingers
- pitkäkyntinengiven to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
Latin fūrax, tagax
- fūraxgiven to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
- tagaxgiven to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
Māori ringa kamakama
- ringa kamakamagiven to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
Polish zręczny, o lepkich rękach
- zręcznyhaving quick, light and nimble fingers
- o lepkich rękachgiven to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
Spanish dedos largos, amigo de lo ajeno
- dedos largosgiven to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
- amigo de lo ajenogiven to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
Cite this entry
light-fingered. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/light-fingered
“light-fingered.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/light-fingered. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “light-fingered,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/light-fingered.
Source: light-fingered on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.