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Artful Dodger

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Artful Dodger
ˌArtful ˈDodger, the
a young pickpocket (=someone who steals things from people’s pockets) in the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He protests that he is a ‘victim of society’. People sometimes describe someone as an ‘artful dodger’ if they refuse to accept responsibility for their actions:
    The minister was regarded as the artful dodger of British politics.