mobsman

English

Etymology

From mob +‎ -s- +‎ man.

Noun

mobsman (plural mobsmen)

1. (obsolete) A pickpocket working in groups.
   • 1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117:

     It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]

Related terms

• swell-mobsman