Other Word Forms
- larcenously adverb
- nonlarcenous adjective
- unlarcenous adjective
- unlarcenously adverb
Etymology
Origin of larcenous
Explanation
Someone who's larcenous has a tendency to steal things. You can describe a classmate as larcenous if she proudly shows off the candy she's stolen from the corner store. Pickpockets, car thieves, and politicians who accept bribes are all larcenous — they are all motivated by a desire for financial gain and a willingness to take things that don't belong to them. This adjective comes from larceny, a fancy way to say "theft." Both words have their roots in the Latin latrocinium, "robbery," which comes from latro, "robber or bandit."
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.
Above and beyond is Bonnie Milligan, portraying Pattie’s larcenous sister Debra, a woman of no known address but who might be elected president if she could redirect that cyclonic energy away from antisocial impulses.
From Washington Post • Nov. 10, 2022
Mr. Wolf, the lupine leader of the larcenous critters at the center of the delightful animated comedy “The Bad Guys,” knows whereof he speaks.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 21, 2022
You have to look at footnote information — provenance citations in object labels — to learn of this larcenous history.
From New York Times • Jan. 6, 2022
Mr. Tudyk played an arrogant internet billionaire in “Big Hero 6,” the shifty Duke of Weselton in “Frozen” and, as an in-joke to “Frozen” fans, Duke Weaselton, a larcenous weasel, in this year’s “Zootopia.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2016
I knew Mrs. Joe’s housekeeping to be of the strictest kind, and that my larcenous researches might find nothing available in the safe.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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.
