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
-
am purloiningprogressive
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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
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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
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
For myself, I never turn a key anywhere, and no one ever purloins from me even a handkerchief.
From The Man Who Kept His Money in a Box by Anthony Trollope
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
Not long afterward, another male red fox entered the scene of the crime; the purloined repast had been his.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023
They arranged to meet 10 days later so that Sheehan could review a set of the purloined papers that Ellsberg now had stored at his brother-in-law’s Cambridge apartment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2023
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 knew thief and steal and, maybe, purloined.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
PARIS—French authorities said they’ve detained four more people in connection to the Louvre heist, including a man suspected of being the only thief to remain at large after purloining the nation’s crown jewels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
“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 search takes place in the very presence of a being he had half accused of purloining the missing letter.
From A German Pompadour Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Grävenitz, Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg by Hon. Agnes Blanche Marie Hay
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.
