pilfer

English

WOTD – 24 May 2008

Boys Pilfering Molasses, 1853 painting by George Henry Hall.

Etymology

From Middle English pilfre (“booty”), from Old French pelfre (“plunder, booty, spoils”), of unknown origin. Compare pelf.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪl.fə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪl.fɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

pilfer (third-person singular simple present pilfers, present participle pilfering, simple past and past participle pilfered)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practise petty theft.

Derived terms

• pilferage
• pilferer

Related terms

• pelf

See also

• fib

Translations

to steal in small quantities

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 扒竊 (zh), 扒窃 (páqiè), 偷竊 (zh), 偷窃 (tōuqiè), 小偷小摸 (xiǎotōuxiǎomō), 東偷西摸 (zh), 东偷西摸 (dōngtōuxīmō), 偷雞摸狗 (zh), 偷鸡摸狗 (tōujīmōgǒu)

• Czech: ukrádat
• Dutch: stelen (nl), jatten (nl)
• Esperanto: ŝteleti
• Finnish: näpistää (fi), näpistellä (fi)
• French: piquer (fr), chaparder (fr)
• German: klauen (de), stehlen (de), stibitzen (de), mopsen (de) (informal), abziehen (de) (juvenile), mausen (de) (rare)
• Hungarian: dézsmál (hu), lopkod
• Italian: rubacchiare

• Latin: surpō
• Maori: kaiā
• Polish: podkradać (pl)
• Portuguese: surripiar (pt), surrupiar (pt)
• Russian: ворова́ть (ru) impf (vorovátʹ), красть (ru) impf (krastʹ), таска́ть (ru) impf (taskátʹ), раста́скивать (ru) impf (rastáskivatʹ), разворо́вывать (ru) impf (razvoróvyvatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: поткрадати

  Roman: potkradati (sh)

• Spanish: sisar (es), ratear (es)
• Tagalog: mangupit, kumupit

Anagrams

• reflip