Dictionary

yegg en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /jɛɡ/

Etymology

Origin unknown.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:cant, slang) A person who breaks open safes; a burglar.
   • ‘These racketeers are a new type. We think about them the way we think about old time yeggs or needled-up punks.’ 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 265:
   • 1904, Edwin S. Porter (director), Capture of the ‘Yegg’ Bank Burglars
   • She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had expected to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven, burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp. 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 2:

Forms

Synonyms

yeggman · safecracker

Translations (6)

hu kasszafúró (a person who breaks open safes; a burglar) · pl kasiarz (a person who breaks open safes; a burglar) · fi murtovaras (a person who breaks open safes; a burglar) · ru взло́мщик (a person who breaks open safes; a burglar) · cs kasař (a person who breaks open safes; a burglar) · fi kassakaappimurtaja (a person who breaks open safes; a burglar)

yegg en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /jɛɡ/

Etymology

Origin unknown.

Meanings

1. (slang) To rob.
   • The bookmakers were yegged as they left the track in the era of the hand-books. 1956, Ian Fleming, chapter 10, in Diamonds Are Forever:

Forms