artful dodgers

Noun

artful dodger (plural artful dodgers)

1. (idiomatic) A crafty person who commits minor crimes or behaves in a rather unscrupulous manner.
   • Meg made many moral rules, and tried to keep them, but what mother was ever proof against the winning wiles, the ingenious evasions, or the tranquil audacity of the miniature men and women who so early show themselves accomplished Artful Dodgers?1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 45, in Little Women

   Synonyms:

   rapscallion, slyboots, trickster

2. (set phrase) One who deftly evades obstacles, pursuers, inconveniences, or other difficulties.
   • I was a pussyfoot, an artful dodger, sidestepping abandoned children, waifs and strays, foundlings, castaways, and junk-people.2003, Michael O'Brien, A Cry of Stone, →ISBN, page 742

   Synonyms:

   eluder, evader