filch
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- filcher noun
- filchingly adverb
- unfilched adjective
Etymology
Origin of filch
1250–1300; Middle English filchen to attack (in a body), take as booty, Old English fylcian to marshal (troops), draw (soldiers) up in battle array, derivative of gefylce band of men; akin to folk
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.
The web of their lives “is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together,” to filch from Shakespeare, and Venable combines virtues and vices in unexpected patterns.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2025
He would filch it if I wasn’t around.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 4, 2020
Forays like these increasingly vex trade hawks in America, who fear that China will filch its cutting-edge technology.
From Economist • Jul. 5, 2018
It’s a line that Mr. Malkovich might easily filch to excuse his participation in this execrable remarriage comedy, one that’s mystifyingly seeded with acting heavyweights.
From New York Times • Sep. 14, 2017
He could walk to school, cutting through a field where he would sometimes filch a ripe melon for an after-school snack.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
