‣ chor, choar noun a thief: I asked her how many chauvies [children] she had? Twelve, sir. Were any of them chors? 19-e20. etymology: Romany; Hindi chor, Sanskrit chora; form chor also; chor form of the verb also collected by EMcC/PS; attested by Galloway Tinkler-Gypsies and also collected by Simson (1865); forms tschor, chor collected by Simson (1865) from Kirk Yetholm Gypsies; verb attested by BS in TDITA, SS and JS note:
This has passed into the speech of North East, Southern, South Eastern and Edinburgh Scots, meaning ‘to steal’ and seems to be mainly used by children.
Grellmann (1787) collected the forms Tʃchor ‘a thief’, Tʃchordas ‘a theft’ and Tʃchor ‘To ʃteal’ from Continental gipsies.
Smart & Crofton (1875) collected the form chor n., v., ‘to steal’ ‘a thief’ from English Gypsies.