lime-fingered

English

Adjective

lime-fingered (comparative more lime-fingered, superlative most lime-fingered)

1. (obsolete) Given to petty thievery; light-fingered.
   • 1562, John Heywood, John Stephen Farmer, The Proverbs, Epigrams, and Miscellanies of John Heywood, page 26:

     A clean-fingered huswife, and an idle, folk say, And will be lime-fingered, I fear, by my fay!

   • 1863, Joseph Hall, The Works of the Joseph Hall, page 227:

     Not careless, slothful, false, lime-fingered servants; but the strict master, that observes, and rates, and chastises them: would he hold his hands and tongue, there would be peace.

   • 1906, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, Or, Purchas His Pilgrimes, page 448:

     Popes long hands and Lime-fingered Appeales.