dummy n.2
a pocket-book, a wallet.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Dummee. A pocket book. A dummee hunter. A pick-pocket, who lurks about to steal pocket books out of gentlemen’s pockets. Frisk the dummee of the screens; take all the bank notes out of the pocket book, ding the dummee, and bolt, they sing out beef. Throw away the pocket book, and run off, as they call out ‘stop thief.’. | |
| Annals of Sporting 1 Feb. 121: Gentlemen of England, out with your dumbies, and rattle the blunt. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Sun (N.Y.) 20 June 2/2: Off. — I heard you used to be a good Backsman. — Have you ‘Ogled a Dummy’ any where? Con. — Yes! a first rate one for a ‘smash,’ and pretty good on a ‘burst.’. | |
| Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 162/2: Dummie – a pocket-book. | |
| Mysteries of London III 85/1: A Stranger—looked like a spunk fencer. [...] pair of kicksters, a fan, and a dummie . | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 61: He was detected in a crowd, where a man had just lost his pocket-book, or ‘dummy,’ and was arrested by a police officer who knew his trade. | |
| Bell’s New Wkly Messenger 9 Mar. 6/2: The buzzer, or gentleman’s pickpocket, is either the stook buzzer [...] purloiner of pocket handkerchieves, or the tail-buzzer, seeking [...] sneezers (snuff boxes, or skins and dummies (purses and pocket books). | |
| N.Y. Times 28 Sept. 2: The Street-Boys [...] all have a slang language, so that they can recognize one another, and converse in a crowd. A watch is a ‘thimble,’ and a pocket-book a ‘dummie’. | |
| ‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Vocabulum 99: I kidded a swell in a snoozing-ken, and shook him of his dummy and thimble. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 8/2: ‘Dummy,’ ‘poke,’ ‘skin’ and ‘bag’ being in general synonimous [sic] terms for the article containing the ‘sugar’. | |
| Sl. Dict. 153: Dummy a pocket book. [...] the idea is connected with dumb, i.e., that which gives no sign. As a thieves’ term for a pocket-book, it is peculiarly applicable, for the contents of pocket-books, bank-notes, and papers make no noise, while the money in a purse betrays its presence by chinking. | |
| Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859]. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: He had a dummie, but no flimsies in it - only some chovey stiffs. [...] He had a pocket-book, but no bank notes in it - only some shop papers. | |
| Mysterious Beggar 210: You bet th’ whole pile in y’r dummy. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 26: Dummy, a pocket book. | |
| ‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: Getting dummy — Taking wallet. | |
| An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 118: Those who value their ‘red lots’ (gold watches), ‘dummies’ (wallets) and other valuables. | |
| Bang To Rights 151: My mate took out his dumie and took out a jacks. | |
| (con. 1950s–60s) in Little Legs 193: dummy wallet. |
In compounds
a pickpocket specializing in stealing wallets.
| Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Dummee. A pocket book. A dummee hunter. A pick-pocket, who lurks about to steal pocket books out of gentlemen’s pockets. Frisk the dummee of the screens; take all the bank notes out of the pocket book, ding the dummee, and bolt, they sing out beef. Throw away the pocket book, and run off, as they call out ‘stop thief.’. | |
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 238: dummy-hunters: thieves who confine themselves to the practice of stealing gentlemen’s pocket-books, and think, or profess to think, it paltry to touch a clout, or other insignificant article; this class of depredators traverse the principal streets of London, during the busy hours, and sometimes meet with valuable prizes. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Heart of London II i: He’s as quiet as a dummy-hunter in a push. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Nix My Dolly’ Dublin Comic Songster 3: No dummy hunter had folks so fly, / No knuckler so deftly could fake a cly. | |
| Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 24 Dec. 862/1: [Those] who affect to be ministers, and preach in the open air to collect crowds for the benefit of those whose ‘mawleys’ dip deep into the ‘cly’ or who ‘fake a blowens;’ and whether ‘magsmen,’ ‘buzgloaks,’ or ‘dummy-hunters’ give the ‘reglars to their ‘benculls’-pick pockets, and share the spoil with their confederates. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 13:33 3/1: The proper way would be to lumber down a square or two and see the dummy hunters jumping on the push on the go-aways. | |
| in Yates & Brough (eds) Our Miscellany 27: ‘He's a rank scamp,’ said one — a gentleman sitting near to the chairman. ‘A wicked dummy hunter,’ said a second. ‘A fly mizzler!’ said a third. | |
| Leeds Times 7 May 6/6: He very frequently collected twenty pocket-books of an evening but never found more than twenty pounds in any one [...] though he did know street ‘dummy hunters’ who made from three hundred to four hundred pounds at a haul. |
In phrases
(US Und.) to steal a wallet.
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Oct. 52/4: [B]eing detected in the very act of frisking a dummy, or stealing a pocket-book. |
to steal pocket-books.
| ‘The Song of the Young Prig’ in Musa Pedestris (1896) 82: Speak to the rattles, bag the swag, / And finely hunt the dummy. | |
| ‘The Song of the Young Prig’ in James Catnach (1878) 171: Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, / And finely hunt the dummy. |
(UK Und.) to steal a wallet or pocket-book.
| Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: The aim of the pickpocket to take a person’s wallet is known as to ‘whiz the dummy,’ or lift the dummy’ and ‘dummy’ in this case is borrowed from the equipment of the confidence trickster who always carries a wallet of dummy notes. |