purloin
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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
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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
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
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
He boldly enters our camp at night and purloins a savory ham or rifles the larder and eats a pound of butter.
From Hunting with the Bow and Arrow by Pope, Saxton
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
Four middle-aged suspects were arrested in Southern California this week when officers found them in possession of roughly $300,000 worth of purloined Lego sets, according to the California Highway Patrol.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2024
But remember when Arondir described Theo’s purloined sword-hilt as a kind of key?
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
The task of finding the missing millions and those who purloined it falls to May de Silva, the country's Anti-Corruption Commissioner.
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 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
A simple but effective way to stop auto bandits from purloining your key fob signal is to use a Faraday bag or pouch.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
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
Kendall was accused of purloining from Tennyson, and he explained—"We cannot pass through the woods without taking away the smell of violets."
From The Awful Australian by Desmond, Valerie
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.
