theft

nouncommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//θɛft//

The act of stealing property.

noun

1
The act of stealing property.
resource theft
Bike theft is on the rise.
A suspect was arrested for the theft of a gold necklace.
If you steal a candy bar, you are guilty of theft, regardless of the value. You can't fudge the theft by saying, "But it was only a candy bar," or "I didn't steal it from a person, but from a rich corporation," or "Everyone steals from the government."

Etymology

From Middle English theft, thefte, þefte, þefþe, þiefþe, Old English þīefþ, from Proto-West Germanic *þiubīþu, from Proto-Germanic *þiubīþō (“theft”), from *þiubijaną (“to thieve, steal”), equivalent to thieve + -t (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with West Frisian tsjeafte (“theft”), dialectal Dutch diefte (“theft”), obsolete German Diebde (“theft”), Icelandic þýfð (“theft”).

Forms

plural: thefts

theatre · A cinema; movie theatre.theatrical · Of or relating to the theatre.thee · To address (a person) using the pronoun thee.

theft · The act of stealing property.

their · Belonging to, from, of, or relating to, them (plural).theirs · That or those belonging to them; the possessive case of they,…Thelma · A female given name originating as a coinage.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.