Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To steal (a small amount or item). synonym: steal.
- intransitive verb To steal or filch.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To steal in small quantities; practise petty theft.
- To steal or gain by petty theft; filch.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practice petty theft.
- transitive verb To take by petty theft; to filch; to steal little by little.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practisepetty theft .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make off with belongings of others
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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If I had wanted to 'pilfer' your correspondence, which was with me for some ten years, would it not have been easier (and more discreet) for me to make photocopies of the letters I wanted to keep and send you back all your originals intact?
Teknosis 2009
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I can't tell you what a relief it will be to just throw away my plastic water bottles (made from petroleum products -- who cares now?) instead of tossing them into recycling for some homeless guy to pilfer.
James Napoli: They've Found a New Habitable Planet! Finally, We Can Destroy This One. James Napoli 2010
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Sure, it was funny to confuse Mabe the Shopkeeper and pilfer his wares.
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It's illegal under U.S. law to steal corporate secrets from other companies, and there is less incentive for U.S. companies to pilfer from countries that are less developed.
China Singled Out for Cyberspying Siobhan Gorman 2011
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As Devin describes, Leonardo DiCaprio plays an Extractor, which is essentially an agent that can insert himself into the dreams of other people, in order to pilfer ideas from their subconscious.
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I can't tell you what a relief it will be to just throw away my plastic water bottles (made from petroleum products -- who cares now?) instead of tossing them into recycling for some homeless guy to pilfer.
James Napoli: They've Found a New Habitable Planet! Finally, We Can Destroy This One. James Napoli 2010
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First Sailosi Tagicakibau fumbled a difficult pass 10 yards out with three blue shirts around him and only one red one in front before George Stowers got to the line, but could not get the ball down, leaving Shane Williams to somehow pilfer the ball from the pile of bodies which piled on the No8.
Rugby World Cup 2011: Wales survive scare against Samoa 2011
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Perhaps he was trying to pilfer as much as possible before conceding.
Scott Straus: Gbagbo's Blame Game Scott Straus 2011
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I can't tell you what a relief it will be to just throw away my plastic water bottles (made from petroleum products -- who cares now?) instead of tossing them into recycling for some homeless guy to pilfer.
James Napoli: They've Found a New Habitable Planet! Finally, We Can Destroy This One. James Napoli 2010
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Police say that during his first offense, Calandrella used keys stolen from lock boxes to pilfer more than 50 items, which he promptly listed on eBay, KSDK reports.
Girl Catches Thief With Webcam: Hallie Pritchard, 12, Nabs Alleged Burglar On Camera 2012
oroboros commented on the word pilfer
Reflip in reverse.
July 22, 2007