thief
[theef]
- a person who steals, especially secretly or without open force; one guilty of theft or larceny.
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Origin of thief
before 900; Middle English; Old English thēof; cognate with Dutch dief, German Dieb, Old Norse thjōfr, Gothic thiufs
Synonyms
See more synonyms for thief on Thesaurus.comburglar, pickpocket, highwayman. Thief, robber refer to one who steals. A thief takes the goods or property of another by stealth without the latter's knowledge: like a thief in the night. A robber trespasses upon the house, property, or person of another, and makes away with things of value, even at the cost of violence: A robber held up two women on the street.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for thief
Contemporary Examples
Dear Thief is worthy of the abused critical adjectives philosophical, atmospheric, and masterful.
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, and all that.
All a thief had to do was take off the dial knob on the safe and place the little joker on inside of it.
Cole was clearly experimenting with this, the signature curve of his storytelling, while writing Every Day Is for the Thief.
His Nigeria book, Every Day is For the Thief, was actually written in 2006, prior to Open City.
Historical Examples
Their shame was hers: the son of her mother, the son of her father was a thief!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
"The less reason, then, for her being a thief," Gilder grumbled in his heaviest voice.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
Mortimer was either a thief or a hero; there could be no question about that.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
Against all evidence she was holding this man honest, believing her brother the thief.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
You're the thief—Levi West—you come here and stole my daddy from me ye did.
Howard Pyle's Book of PiratesHoward Pyle
thief
- a person who steals something from another
- criminal law a person who commits theft
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Word Origin
Old English thēof; related to Old Frisian thiāf, Old Saxon thiof, Old High German diob, Old Norse thjōfr, Gothic thiufs
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for thief
n.
Old English þeof, from Proto-Germanic *theubaz (cf. Old Frisian thiaf, Old Saxon thiof, Middle Dutch dief, Old High German diob, German dieb, Old Norse þiofr, Gothic þiufs), probably from PIE *teup- (cf. Lithuanian tupeti "to crouch down").
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper