thief
Americannoun
-
thieves
plural
noun
-
a person who steals something from another
-
criminal law a person who commits theft
Usage
What does thief mean? A thief is a person who steals, especially in secret and without using force or violence. The plural of thief is thieves. The related noun theft refers to the act or an instance of stealing. In general, intentionally taking something that doesn’t belong to you makes you a thief. The word most commonly refers to a person who steals money or physical property, but a thief can steal other things, such as ideas, information, or intellectual property. The word thief typically refers to a person who steals without anyone noticing, at least not when the theft is taking place. In contrast, a person who steals by using force, violence, or threats of force or violence would more likely be called a robber. Still, the word thief is used generally to refer to someone who steals. In this way, a robber is a kind of thief. Most instances of theft are crimes, but a person might still be called a thief if they’ve committed a theft that won’t get them arrested. You might call your sibling a thief when they steal a cookie from your plate, for example. Example: I don’t care that he only stole a few things—he stole them, and that makes him a thief.
Synonym Usage
Thief, robber refer to one who steals. A thief takes the goods or property of another by stealth without the latter's knowledge: like a thief in the night. A robber trespasses upon the house, property, or person of another, and makes away with things of value, even at the cost of violence: A robber held up two women on the street.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of thief
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English thēof; cognate with Dutch dief, German Dieb, Old Norse thjōfr, Gothic thiufs
Explanation
A thief is someone who steals something. A thief can be anything from a cyberspace criminal mastermind who steals credit card information around the world, to the petty thief who picks people's pockets on the subway. Some famous thieves (notice the -v- in the plural) include outlaws of the Old West, like Butch Cassidy and Jesse James, and those notorious bank robbers of the 1930s with the memorable names — "Baby Face" Nelson, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, "Machine Gun" Kelly, to name a few. They were so bold (and so brutal) that their activities became a major impetus for the beefing up of the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover.
Vocabulary lists containing thief
Excerpt from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for June 8–June 14, 2024
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Unit 19, Lesson 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The brutal heat and intense working conditions inside the kitchen and the front area of the business come after a thief wrecked the rooftop air conditioning unit in search of copper wiring.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
He is also on a mission — to clear his father’s name as the wrongfully convicted thief of a valuable necklace owned by the Pellegrini family.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
For three glorious seasons between 1983 and 1985, ‘80s kids also had the “Dungeons & Dragons” animated series with its two girl heroes: an acrobat and a thief with an invisibility cloak.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
But things really exploded on 21 May, when Schneider, who has 1.4m subscribers, posted a video called "I tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of LEGO".
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
“I can’t believe one of our best friends could be a thief either,” he said slowly.
From "A Monster of a Mystery (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #5)" by Franklin W. Dixon
"Tanks for nothing" writes Metro as it says "soaring prices at pump see thieves flee forecourts".
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Crypto accounts, bank accounts and even eBay accounts are also vulnerable to phishing scams where thieves send an email with a link and implore you to click.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
It is primarily tasked with repairing and fortifying the city’s more than 210,000 streetlamps — a frequent target of copper wire thieves — and maintaining its network of electrical vehicle charging stations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
"The thieves, they have already taken all our stuff at home, so we don't have anything. But it's better to go home without anything than to lose our lives," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
After he falls asleep, I watch some dumb movie about art thieves.
From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
