British slang for a petty thief — the kind who targets small, low-value items rather than pulling off anything dramatic.
British slang for a petty thief — the kind who targets small, low-value items rather than pulling off anything dramatic. The name conjures a comically unglamorous criminal: not robbing banks, just nicking coins from someone's prepayment gas meter. It's used with a mixture of contempt and dark humour for people who steal from their own neighbours. A very specifically British way of describing the lowest rung of local criminal life.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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The police weren't exactly stretched — they were looking for a gas meter bandit who'd done over three bedsits on the estate.
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(chiefly British, slang) A small-time thief.
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