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Glite Dictionary
🦹 A thief 🦹 To steal
heister

heister

1 9.9
A person who steals from shops or buildings, often during a planned robbery
  • noun
  • /ˈhaɪstər/
  • Slang
translation icon : ladrón
  • Everyone in town knew about the heisters who had been stealing from local businesses.

Examples

  • The notorious heister was finally caught after a long investigation into his criminal activities.

  • Do you think I'm gonna set you up with a jerk-off heister?

    The Score (2001)

  • So, there was this guy that was on-site in the money room when it went down, and he swears that one of the heisters was Parker.

    Play Dirty (2025)

  • The police arrested two heisters after they attempted to rob the convenience store.

Synonyms

robber
vsheister
186 1.0

A person who steals from others by using or threatening to hurt them

is a slang term covering both violent theft and nonviolent stealing
larcenist
vsheister
  • Archaic
1 9.2

A person who steals things

is the informal slang version used outside legal language
nimmer
vsheister
  • Offensive
9.9

A person who steals things from people's pockets

is used for violent robbery as well as other stealing rather than pocket theft
larcener
vsheister
  • Archaic
9.9

A person who illegally takes other people's things

is a slang expression rather than a formal legal term

Surface Forms

heister singular
heisters plural

Morphology

heister = heist (transparent) = heist + er

The noun is a straightforward agent form meaning a person who commits a heist.

Etymology

Heister comes from the American slang heist, which means a robbery. One helpful idea links heist to an old German word heischen meaning 'to demand', and another way to remember it is to think of hoist 'to lift', so a heister is someone who 'lifts' or takes things, which is why it means a thief or robber.