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
-
purloinssimple
-
have purloinedperfect
-
has purloinedperfect
-
am purloiningprogressive
-
are purloiningprogressive
-
is purloiningprogressive
-
have been purloiningperfect progressive
-
has been purloiningperfect progressive
Past
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Frankenstein
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Tolkien Reading Day, List 1
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
So you have this old-ass opera being mounted in an all-but-abandoned art palace, on the one hand; and this guy, on the other, using state of-the-art technology to purloin the singing.
From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 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
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
To emphasise the veracity of its spooky goings-on, it purloins real events such as the 2004 tsunami and the 7 July London bombings, and even subtitles its foreigners.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 31, 2011
She plunders sighs from humankind, She pilfers tears I would not weep, She robs me of my peace of mind, And she purloins my sleep.
From Poems by Arthur Macy
Users, including Fortune 500 companies, are turning to unregulated, possibly purloined “open weight” Chinese AI models to save money and avoid exposing their data to the big domestic labs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Betancourt tells us that “Hello Stranger” begins in “a place where I’ve long purloined many of my most head-spinning obsessions: the movies.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 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
Prices for standard bonds, for example, fall to compensate for the fact that inflation has purloined part of their original yields.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2022
It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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
And those who get their kicks from purloining stuff that they’re expected to pay for were especially grumpy.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 21, 2014
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
There was good about the old lady, and by purloining her artificials, limiting her snuff, and soaking her in tea, she was made endurable enough.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 by Various
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.
