filch
Americanverb (used with object)
-
filches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
filched,
past participle, past
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filching
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
filchsimple
-
filchessimple
-
have filchedperfect
-
has filchedperfect
-
am filchingprogressive
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are filchingprogressive
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is filchingprogressive
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have been filchingperfect progressive
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has been filchingperfect progressive
Past
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filchedsimple
-
had filchedperfect
-
was filchingprogressive
-
were filchingprogressive
-
had been filchingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
You can filch money, time, and stuff, but I wouldn't recommend it. Filching is stealing, as in "You filched my cookies!" Doesn't filch just sound kind of dirty? That could be because it's one letter away from filth, but it's also true that stealing is usually considered a dirty, lowdown deed. No one wants their things to be filched. Filching is similar to pilfering, swiping, lifting, and purloining — other words for taking what isn't yours. We've all probably filched at some point, but thieves make a profession out of filching.
Vocabulary lists containing filch
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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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 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
One piece they failed to filch, however, was the Dresden Green, an elaborate diamond hat pin crafted around an extremely rare, almond-shaped celadon-green diamond.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 9, 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
He’d head up to Connecticut and filch Fred in the middle of the night.
From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein
In his ruling, he quoted “Othello”: “He that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.”
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 4, 2016
I sidle over to spoon my husband’s cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup with lemon verbena and shellfish; he filches confit.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 12, 2015
Gunn not only filches from the trove, he graciously acknowledges the theft.
From Time ● Aug. 1, 2014
By contrast, Fairey simply filches artworks and hopes that no one notices — the joke is on you.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2012
He who in any age filches from time-lock combination light for his kind, must have his Caucasus, whereon, blind scavangers of fate, batten harpy gorge, while not a kindly drop softens Olmypus' cold, drear scowl.
From Oswald Langdon or, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898 by Carson Jay Lee
To permit the filched territory and motor to keep continuous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2021
But there was no evidence that the fragment with writings from Mark had been filched.
From New York Times ● Sep. 24, 2021
To balance the state’s budget, the Legislature has filched all it can from cities and towns over the years.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 19, 2019
When not kitted out in her Captain Marvel suit—much less revealing than Gadot’s Wonder Woman getup—she spends much of the film in a baggy Nine Inch Nails T-shirt filched from a store mannequin.
From Slate ● Mar. 5, 2019
Like a human woman, Rachael had every class of object conceivable filched and hidden away in her purse; he found himself rooting interminably.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Sandwich spirals — also known as pinwheels — remind us of our parents filching some leftovers from "grown up" game day or office parties for us to enjoy when we got home.
From Fox News ● Dec. 13, 2021
A confrontation also would be embarrassing – like having to tell a coworker that you suspected them of doing something unsavory, like filching your pens.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2020
As unemployment rates nationwide have sunk to record lows, filching workers — from kitchens and construction sites, warehouses and Walmarts, truck cabs and nursing homes — has become routine.
From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2019
Then they began filching stories from their real lives for the show.
From Slate ● May 29, 2012
I can’t tell you how hurt and sorry I felt to-night when I believed you to be mixed up with that contemptible bit of filching.
From Brownsmith's Boy A Romance in a Garden by George Manville Fenn
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.
