noun General Slang

Angler

/ˈæŋɡlər/ · noun · slang

A thief who 'fished' goods through open windows with a hooked pole by night.

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Definitions

1

Also called a 'curber'; the hooked staff itself was the 'curb' or 'angle'.

“His curb was jointed to fold small under a coat, then run out long at the window.”
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2

By extension, any sneak-thief who lifted goods at arm's length without entering.

“An angler never broke in — he simply reached in.”
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3

A thief who used a long staff with a hook (the 'angle') to draw clothes, sheets and goods out through open windows and shopfronts, casing the houses by day and working them by night.

“The angler marked the open casement at noon and hooked the linen out before dawn.”
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Angler In A Sentence

The angler's hook came soft through the shutter and the cloak was gone.
Greene wrote up the angler and his curb among the night-working trades.
By day he begged; by darkmans he turned angler at the rich men's windows.

Origin & Usage

Described in Robert Greene's 'The Second Part of Conny-Catching' (1592) and in Harman (1566), where the trade is also called 'curbing'. The names come straight from the angling and curbing of goods out on a hook.

Variants curberanglingcurbing
Tags #thieves-cant#cant#historical#british#crime

People Also Ask

What is an angler in thieves' cant?

A thief who used a hooked pole to 'fish' goods out through open windows, described in Greene (1592) and Harman (1566).

What was the curb?

The jointed hooked staff the angler used; the trade was also called curbing.

Did anglers break into houses?

No — they reached in from outside with the hook, which made the crime harder to pin on them.

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