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)

Verb

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

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

Derived terms

• pilferage
• pilferer

Translations

to steal in small quantities

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

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

• 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