THIEVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does thieve mean? 

• THIEVE (verb)
  The verb THIEVE has 1 sense:

1. take by theft

  Familiarity information: THIEVE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THIEVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they thieve    ... he / she / it thieves   
Past simple: thieved   
Past participle: thieved   
-ing form: thieving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take by theft

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

cop; glom; hook; knock off; snitch; thieve

Context example:

Someone snitched my wallet!

Hypernyms (to "thieve" is one way to...):

rip; rip off; steal (take without the owner's consent)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

thievery; thieving (the act of taking something from someone unlawfully)

 Context examples 

They are twin thieves who live upon our labor.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At this the thieves were frightened, and said, “Softly, softly! Speak low, that you may not awaken anybody.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Tobin, the caretaker, was murdered, and the thieves got away with seven thousand pounds.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"It's a useful thing to have in the house in case of fire or thieves," observed Laurie, as a watchman's rattle appeared, amid the laughter of the girls.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was a case, in the parlance of thieves and police, of "rail-roading."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

One day he had met me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they could get rid of what they stole.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The fame of your wealth has gone abroad, Lord Mount-James, and it is entirely possible that a gang of thieves have secured your nephew in order to gain from him some information as to your house, your habits, and your treasure.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They were sneak-thieves.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But he was too deep, and too ready, and too clever for me, and by the time the two men had come back out of breath and confessed that they had lost the track in a crowd, and been scolded like thieves, I would have gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)