heist
Americannoun
-
heists
plural
verb (used with object)
-
heists,
present (3rd person singular)
-
heisted,
past participle, past
-
heisting
present participle
-
to take unlawfully, especially in a robbery or holdup; steal.
to heist a million dollars' worth of jewels.
-
to rob or hold up.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
heistsimple
-
heistssimple
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have heistedperfect
-
has heistedperfect
-
am heistingprogressive
-
are heistingprogressive
-
is heistingprogressive
-
have been heistingperfect progressive
-
has been heistingperfect progressive
Past
-
heistedsimple
-
had heistedperfect
-
was heistingprogressive
-
were heistingprogressive
-
had been heistingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of heist
1925–30, alteration of hoist
Explanation
When a man with a gun walks into a bank and says, "Give me all your money," that's a heist or a robbery at gunpoint. Heist, pronounced "hīst," is a slang word for an armed robbery. It's also a slang word used to describe the act of stealing or breaking into someone's house to steal their stuff. In other words, it's a burglary. Heist can also act as a verb: "If you've heisted a diamond ring, you've stolen it."
Vocabulary lists containing heist
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Six of Crows
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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 FBI on Saturday accused North Korea of stealing more than $6 billion in virtual assets from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance in what is thought to be the biggest-ever crypto heist.
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026
The hack is believed to be the largest in history, eclipsing the record of a $1.5bn heist on the Bybit exchange in 2025.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
Plus, a big upset in Big Law and the bitcoin heist at Binance.
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2026
Binance suspended transactions Thursday as the cryptocurrency exchange investigates the biggest cyber heist in history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
He leaned across the table conspiratorially, as if the three were criminals planning a heist, and dropped his voice to a whisper: “You have bought into something that is bigger than either of you are.”
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
Cryptocurrency heists have become North Korea’s most lucrative and vital revenue stream, replacing exports of coal and textiles that have been crippled by global sanctions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
From the rapidly rising and falling values of Bitcoin to high-profile heists like the hacking of Binance, the world of cryptocurrencies is often in the headlines.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
A spate of heists at French museums -- including at the Louvre -- has highlighted inadequate security in some cases and led to questions about whether criminal gangs see them as soft targets.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
Not since Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief” has there been a more charismatic and lovable “villain,” not to mention some pretty great heists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Art heists are almost always the work of amateurs, and there’s nothing dashing or romantic about these thieves.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
The culprit: the big internet and social media platforms that grab news outlets’ work without paying for it and build their own ad programs around the heisted articles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2024
The saga of Kelly’s heisted honeybees would rattle the beekeeper and the clients who sought his specially bred bees.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 13, 2021
The interface for the Archive looks like a set of old file cabinets that might have been heisted from an old-time bail bondsman’s office.
From New York Times ● Aug. 20, 2019
During the latter stages of the LP’s production, the Beatles famously heisted one of EMI Studios’ experimental eight-track machines and produced several tracks with that more expansive sound palette.
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2018
The lid was heisted, and mighty well it was.
From Successful Recitations by Alfred H. (Alfred Henry) Miles
In fact, heisting Manhattan turns out to be less farfetched than it sounds.
From Time Magazine Archive
The instrumental track "You Wish" beautifully invokes the spirit of Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" without ever wholesale heisting the original.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
