slang. Obs. [Cf. FILE sb.5] To pick pockets. Also, To file a cly.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Tout, Do you Bulk and I’ll File, if you’ll jostle him, I wiil Pick his Pocket. Ibid., s.v. Cly, Filed a Cly, Pickt a Pocket.
Hence Filer, a pick-pocket. Filing vbl. sb., the action of the vb. FILE, in comb. filing-lay, pocket-picking.
1674. Cotton, Compl. Gamester, i. (1680), 5. This is the time (when ravenous beasts usually seek their prey) wherein comes shoals of Huffs, Hectors, Setters, Gilts, Pads, Biters, Divers, Lifters, Filers, Budgies, Droppers, Cross-byters, &c. and these may all pass under the general and common appellation of Rooks.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, III. 100.
| A Craver my Father, A Maunder my Mother, | |
| A Filer my Sister, a Filcher my Brother. |
1743. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, IV. ii. D—n me, I am committed for the filing-lay, man, and we shall be both nubbed together.
