thief-taker

English

Noun

thief-taker (plural thief-takers)

1. (now chiefly historical) Someone whose job it is to find and capture thieves.
   • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 63:

     In the later 1690s Rewse became a successful thief-taker, reaping large rewards for the capture of Jacobite conspirators, clippers, and coiners.