tooler

English

Etymology

From tool +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

tooler (plural toolers)

1. A stonemason's chisel.
2. One who tools leather.
3. A criminal who defrauds a fruit machine and steals the money inside.
4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A pickpocket.
   • 1970, Kellow Chesney, The Anti-society: An Account of the Victorian Underworld, page 168:

     Pickpockets took to housebreaking and housebreakers joined gangs of street thieves; cracksmen's mistresses were often toolers and shoplifters.

   • 2010, Bryce Courtenay, The Potato Factory, volume 1, page 103:

     A tooler was the most elite of the pickpockets, a planner and plotter, a boy with brains, daring and courage. At any one time Ikey hoped for four toolers in the making and two fully blown and working at the top of their trade.

References

• (pickpocket): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• looter, retool, rootle