filch
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
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filchsimple
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filchessimple
-
have filchedperfect
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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
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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
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Othello
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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:
He would filch it if I wasn’t around.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2020
The 14-count indictment, unsealed Tuesday, alleges Xiaoqing Zheng of Niskayuna, N.Y., and Zhaoxi Zhang of China’s Liaoning province teamed up to filch millions of dollars’ worth of General Electric’s aviation trade secrets.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2019
The cause of the new public relations crisis is the disclosure last week of two new ways to filch data from the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world’s computers.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2018
The window of opportunity is rapidly closing on them: Every new story idea the duo comes up with is already claimed by Shakespeare, a shameless plagiarist always eager to filch an idea from Nigel's notebook.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2017
"Of course. The book keeper keeps it under lock and key. People filch them sometimes, you know. Do their own version. It hurts our box, then."
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
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
By contrast, Fairey simply filches artworks and hopes that no one notices — the joke is on you.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2012
She snorts when she laughs, filches food from the pantry, just because she can, and runs free through the bar-infested woods.
From Time ● Jun. 21, 2012
Then the Paphlagonian filches from one of us what we have prepared and makes a present of it to our old man.
From The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 by Aristophanes
To permit the filched territory and motor to keep continuous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 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
They have filched trade secrets related to semiconductors and jet engines and aircraft carriers.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 11, 2018
Since somebody had filched the school map, we’d hoped to be free of that subject.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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
Luhnow offered this lament even as the Astros were filching pitching signs like itchy-fingered bank robbers.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2020
Then they began filching stories from their real lives for the show.
From Slate ● May 29, 2012
Bishop Newton, who was Dean a hundred and twenty years ago, roundly accused the authorities of filching the decoration funds for William's wars.
From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch by Arthur Dimock
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.
