artful dodger

Meaning

Noun

• A crafty person who commits minor crimes or behaves in a rather unscrupulous manner.
• One who deftly evades obstacles, pursuers, inconveniences, or other difficulties.

Origin

• From the nickname of a skillful young pickpocket and rascal in Oliver Twist (1838) by Charles Dickens.
• {{cite-book
• |year=1867
• |author=Charles Dickens
• |title=Oliver Twist
• |chapter=Oliver Walks To London. He Encounters On The Road A Strange Sort Of Young Gentleman
• |passage=Mr. Dawkin's appearance did not say a vast deal in favour of the comforts which his patron's interest obtained for those whom he took under his protection; but, as he had a rather flightly and dissolute mode of conversing, and furthermore avowed that among his intimate friends he was better known by the sobriquet of 'The Artful Dodger,' Oliver concluded that, being of a dissipated and careless turn, the moral precepts of his benefactor had hitherto been thrown away upon him.