purloin
Americanverb (used with object)
-
purloins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
purloined,
past participle, past
-
purloining
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
purloins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
purloined,
past participle, past
-
purloining
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
purloinsimple
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purloinssimple
-
have purloinedperfect
-
has purloinedperfect
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am purloiningprogressive
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are purloiningprogressive
-
is purloiningprogressive
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have been purloiningperfect progressive
-
has been purloiningperfect progressive
Past
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purloinedsimple
-
had purloinedperfect
-
was purloiningprogressive
-
were purloiningprogressive
-
had been purloiningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of purloin
First recorded in 1325–50; Middle English purloynen, from Anglo-French purloigner, Old French porloigner “to put off, remove,” equivalent to pur- (from Latin prō- pro- 1 ) + -loigner, derivative of loin “at a distance, far off,” from Latin longē “a long way off,” adverb of longus “long” ( see origin at long 1 ( def. ))
Explanation
You can use the verb purloin to mean "steal" or "take," especially if it's done in a sneaky way. If you sneak a dollar out of your mom's purse, you purloin it. Kids might purloin apples from a neighbor's tree, and a crooked cashier might purloin cash from her boss's convenience store. Originally, purloin meant "put at a distance" in Middle English. The word comes from the Anglo-French purloigner, "put away."
Vocabulary lists containing purloin
To Kill a Mockingbird
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Frankenstein
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 1
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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:
That's why he has to purloin someone else's work in order to finish off his novel.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2023
The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was purloin.
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2022
It is the first to show some T cells purloin a protein called CD20 from the surface of B cells, he adds.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2022
A series of turns leads Bunton, during an ill-conceived trip to London to make his case against the BBC license fee to Parliament and the media, to purloin the Wellington portrait from the National Gallery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2021
He hesitated, then stomped back the way he’d come, stopping to purloin a clean shirt from another cabin.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
With a fee that she purloins from a church collection plate, she implores him for help and he agrees, as he learns more about this young girl’s challenging childhood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
He survives, and in the chaos purloins a painting that his mother loved and with which he becomes obsessed.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 5, 2019
Desperate to buy her father out of debtor’s prison, she purloins a copy of his thesis and sets out to win the Great God Contest herself.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2015
The best exemplar of the species is probably E. W. Hornung’s Raffles, who was educated at the best schools, plays cricket for England, moves among the upper classes and discreetly purloins their jewels.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2012
If a child purloins cakes or sweetmeats, punish him by giving him none the next time they are on table.
From The Ladies' Guide to True Politeness and Perfect Manners or, Miss Leslie's Behaviour Book by Eliza Leslie
While the fuel-oil tax-dodge is a relatively recent phenomenon, purloined Mexican fuel, known simply as huachicol, has circulated for decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Evolution has similarly purloined existing features and modified them, using great thrift, for example, to transmogrify a piece of jaw into an ear or to transform a leg into a wing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
But the moment passed, and in 1949 the Soviet Union exploded its own plutonium-based atomic bomb — largely by re-creating Hanford 1,000 miles east of Moscow using blueprints purloined from the Manhattan Project.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2023
Stealthily, from its roost on the ceiling, one bat reached out and purloined his sun hat.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
It knew thief and steal and, maybe, purloined.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
With regard to a Hemingway purloining on “Love and Theft”: “Dylan implants only part of the original sentence, while presumably expecting us to cough up the whole.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
“You know, they say that Atlanta influences everything,” Williams told the crowd, purloining a phrase often used to describe Atlanta’s paramount place in African American and broader American culture.
From Seattle Times ● May 14, 2022
At one British university, students were purloining towels from their dispensers, so Sofidel provided dispensers with locks.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 25, 2019
One of the rare politicians who paid a price for purloining was Joe Biden, whom I profiled in the magazine last week.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 29, 2014
The purloining of the son of the poet-tyrant by the daughter of the financier-convict.
From Chance A Tale in Two Parts by Joseph Conrad
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.
