cutpurse, cut-purse
(ˈkʌtpɜːs)
[cut v. 65.]
‘One who steals by the method of cutting purses, a common practice when men wore their purses at their girdles’ (J.); hence, a pickpocket, thief, robber; also fig.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 118 ‘Bi Crist’, quaþ a Cuttepors [B. v. 639 cutpurs, C. viii. 283 kitte-pors] ‘I haue no kun þere’. 1530 Palsgr. 505/2 His eares be cutte of, it is a signe he hath ben a cut purse. 1587 Golding De Mornay xii. 176 How often hast thou seene the Cutpurse hanged with the purse about his necke? 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 686. 1668 R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 74 A crowd of Cut-Purses, running full speed from their own ears. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 25 ¶11, I approached him as if I knew him a Cut-purse. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 244 Measures were taken to arrest this cut-purse of the ocean. |
| attrib. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 137 Away you Cut⁓purse Rascall, you filthy Bung, away. 1884 Pall Mall G. 19 Sept. 1/2 Incapable of that cut-purse policy. |
Hence
† ˈcutpursing vbl. n., cutting of purses.
| 1499 Promp. Parv. 111 (Pynson) Cut pursinge, burcidium. 1579 J. Jones Preserv. Bodie & Soul i. xv. 28 This..is farre worse than coosining, cut pursing, or roging. |