dodger
Related to dodger: Artful Dodger
artful dodger
A rogue or miscreant who avoids getting in trouble for their crimes, mischief, or bad behavior through crafty or ingenious means. Taken from the name of a clever pickpocket in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. She's always causing mischief, but she's such an artful dodger that she always finds a way to get out of trouble.
See also: artful, dodger
coffin-dodger
1. One who is elderly. Primarily heard in the UK. Only coffin-dodgers go grocery shopping at 10 AM on a Tuesday morning.
2. One who smokes. You can probably bum a cig off one of the coffin-dodgers out back.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
coffin-dodger
(ˈkɔfnæ dɑdʒɚ) n. a heavy smoker. I just hate these damn coffin-dodgers who smoke right outside the door!
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
Artful Dodger
a sly person, especially one involved in dubious or criminal activities. It was the nickname of Jack Dawkins, a young pickpocket in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. The character survives in the stage and movie musical Oliver!, which was based on the Dickens novel, but the phrase as applied to a “sneaky Pete” is now rarely if ever heard. “Dodger” in the sense of evading danger inspired the name of the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) baseball team; in its early years in Brooklyn, the team was the “Trolley Dodgers.” Brooklyn had many streetcar lines, and to play in the streets required youngsters to dodge streetcars, and “trolley dodger” became the slang term for anyone from that borough.
See also: artful, dodger
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
- artful dodger
- make mischief
- hardball
- code of practice
- have a light bulb go off (in (one's) head)
- have a light bulb go off in (one's) brain
- bulb
- a light bulb goes off in (one's) brain
- a light bulb goes off in (one's) head
- scamp