subs. (old).—A thief: also as adj. = mercenary; fraudulent.

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  d. 1520.  DUNBAR [LAING, Works, 161].

        Be I ane lord, and not lord like,
Than every pelour and PURSE-PIKE.

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  1555.  [MAITLAND, The Reformation in England (1849), 529]. Such PICK-PURSE matters is all the whole rabble of your ceremonies; for all is but money matters that ye maintain.

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  1594.  J. LYLY, Mother Bombie, v. 3. This is your old trick, to PICK one’s PURSE, and then to picke quarrels.

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  15[?].  The Reasoning betwixt Crossraguell and J. Knox, B. iii, b. They affirmed … purgatorie to be nothing but a PYKEPURS.

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  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 1, 54. Chamb. [Within] At hand, quoth PICK-PURSE. Ibid. (1600), As You Like It, iii. 4. I think he is not a PICK-PURSE nor a horse-stealer.

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  1767.  RAY, Proverbs [BOHN], 69. A good bargain is a PICK-PURSE.

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