Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tea leaf n.

1. a thief.

1890		Bird o’ Freedom 15 Jan. 1/1: ‘I want a name for a colt of mine,’ observed the Legal Luminary. ‘It’s half-bred.’ ‘Half bread?’ repeated the Tealeaf, musingly. ‘Then call it Sausage.’.
1892		E.W. Rogers [perf. Marie Lloyd] G’arn Away 🎵 ‘Who cut all yer ’air orff? why, you’ve been upon the mill’ / Do yer think I’d have a ‘tea-leaf’?
1896		‘Thieves’ Sl.’ Gent.’s Mag. CCLXXXI Oct. 348: I have heard a Lisson Grove maiden use ‘tea leaves’ for ‘thieves.’.
1903		Manchester Courier 7 Feb. 15/5: ‘A Fine Tea Leaf’ [...] A woman called Marion Costello was charged [...] with stealing a dress skirt.
1926		N. Lucas London and its Criminals 21: The last time I ran across this enterprising pair of ‘tea leaves,’ which is crookese for thieves, was at Oxford Circus.
1930		Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: ‘Tea leaves’ for thieves appears to be a copy of the rhyming slang of the streets.
1935		X. Petulengro Romany Life 247: The light-fingered gentry with the mackintoshes, over one arm, who gently taps your pocket and marks you with a chalk [...] to indicate to his friend the tea-leaf or poke-lifter, the true pickpocket, where the money lies.
1945		J. Maclaren-Ross Swag, the Spy and the Soldier in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 26 38: There was also rhyming slang: a thief became a tea-leaf. [Ibid.] 58: We all drank a toast to Sandy solemnly standing to attention: ‘To the great Tea Leaf!’.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: ’E couldn’t give it up. ’E’s a proper born tealeaf if ever I saw one.
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 132: A tea leaf never throws away a cheque book.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 55: A born tealeaf ain’t gonna turn up ’is hooter at inside information like that is ’e?
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 180: ‘A tealeaf is just a cunt in my eyes’.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 198: T leaf: thief.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 139: Trouble with you local-yocal tealeafs, son, is you lack what we In the trade call, uh, discernment.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 187/1: tealeaf (also tealeafer) n. a thief.
1984		Smiley Culture ‘Cockney Translation’ 🎵 Cockney say tea leaf. We just say sticks man.
1996		(con. 1950s) in P. Doyle Get Rich Quick (2004) 24: Your small bookie has always been vulnerable. He has to [...] keep a look out for tea leaves like Charlie Furner.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 36: tealeaf n. A thief - rhyming slang.
2000		Observer Screen 9 Jan. 18: Two out of three tea-leaves featured have spent time at Her Majesty’s pleasure.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 106/1: leaf n. 1 (also leafer) a thief [...] 187/1: tealeaf (also tealeafer) n. a thief.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 79: No bad cunt, total tea leaf, kin be a bit ay a wideo.
2021		Betoota-isms 252: ‘Some Tea Leaf nicked the garden hose from my front yard this morning’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 126: There’s a strong tea-leaf tradition in ma family.
1999		Guardian Guide 23–29 Oct. 52: Villains, thugs, and lowlife tea-leaf scum on cop-shows.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 51: It wouldna been him tied to the fuckin chair, it would a been his tea-leaf fuckin uncle.

In phrases

on the tealeaf

working as a thief.

1959

F. Norman Stand on Me 57: Evry now and then I would go out on the tealeaf.