moll-buzzingn.
/ˈmɒlˌbʌzɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈmɑlˌbəzɪŋ/ slang. Now rare.
The practice of picking the pockets of, or stealing from, women.
ΚΠ
1895 Lyttelton (N.Z.) Times 21 May 6/6 ‘Moll-buzzing’ is the trade of that cowardly branch of the profession which lives by picking the pockets of women.
1900 ‘J. Flynt’ & ‘F. Walton’ Powers that Prey 225 Her gift for mathematics made it clear that ‘moll-buzzing’ was much more remunerative than sleeping in cellars and peddling Park Row literature.
1903 H. Hapgood Autobiogr. Thief (1904) ii. 34 In those days..Moll-buzzing, as well as picking pockets in general, was an easy and lucrative graft.
1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. No. 24. 169 There's a season for moll buzzing, around the different holidays.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.1895