noun

• The action of stealing from people's pockets; pickpocketing.

  ‘pocket-picking isn't always reported to the police’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Others insisted that in saloons and pool rooms, street youths were "instructed by New York Fagins in the arts of petty pilfering, of pocket-picking, sneak-thieving, circulating counterfeit coin," and other kinds of crime.’
  • ‘Apart from predictable pocket-picking on "the track", a free-admission area hosting thousands, no incidence of criminal activity was reported anywhere.’
  • ‘In a breakdown of the 1,441 thefts, the UCR says pocket-picking rose from a total of nine during the first four months of last year to a total of 20 from the first four months of this year.’
  • ‘I live in Sydney, which had a massive increase in pocket-picking when we hosted the Olympics in 2000.’
  • ‘The number of thefts by pocket-picking has increased 50 per cent in Stockholm city during the first two months this year.’