What does cutpurse mean?
A cutpurse is a thief who steals from other people's pockets, purses, or bags — what we would today call a pickpocket. The term dates to a period when purses were worn tied at the waist or belt, so that stealing one often meant literally cutting it away, hence the name. Common from roughly the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, 'cutpurse' appeared frequently in literature and street ballads as shorthand for urban petty crime; Shakespeare and his contemporaries used it freely. In modern English the word has fallen out of ordinary use and survives mainly as a colorful historical or literary label. Writers reach for it when they want to evoke the crowded markets, fairs, and streets of earlier eras, giving prose an antique flavor that 'pickpocket' does not carry. It is always a noun, always pejorative, and almost always applied to small-scale theft rather than violence.
nounA person who steals money or valuables from people's pockets and bags, especially in crowded places; a pickpocket. The word is now largely historical, evoking thieves of earlier centuries.
- A historical term for a thief who steals purses or picks pockets, especially in crowds.
"The bustling market was notorious for the cutpurses who worked the crowd with practiced hands."
"The constable warned travelers to guard their coin against the cutpurses lurking near the fair."
"In the play's opening scene, a nimble cutpurse lifts a nobleman's purse without his ever noticing."
Standard pluralization by adding -s.
"The city watch was organized specifically to deal with the gangs of cutpurses preying on visitors."
Shakespeare's audiences knew exactly what a 'cutpurse' was — in an age when purses were tied at the belt, a thief would literally cut them free.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cutpurse
Cutpurse is a straightforward English compound formed from the verb 'cut' plus the noun 'purse', describing a thief who would slice a purse from its owner's belt. The compound arose in late Middle English and was firmly established by the early modern period, when purses were carried tied to the body rather than kept inside clothing. As fashion changed and purses moved into pockets, the older term gave way to 'pickpocket' during the eighteenth century. Its components are native English words, so it has no foreign cognates, though it belongs to the same family of compounds built on 'cut' such as 'cutthroat' and 'cutler'.
Related word forms
How cutpurse is actually used
The word is archaic or deliberately literary in contemporary English; writers use it to evoke Elizabethan England, crime fiction set in earlier eras, or a playful old-fashioned tone. It carries no regional restriction but is rare in everyday speech.
Easily confused with cutpurse
A pickpocket is the standard modern term for someone who steals from pockets, while cutpurse is an older, largely historical synonym for the same kind of thief.