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thief

[theef]

noun, plural thieves.

a person who steals, especially secretly or without open force; one guilty of theft or larceny.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English thēof; cognate with Dutch dief, German Dieb, Old Norse thjōfr, Gothic thiufs

Related forms

un·der·thief, noun, plural -thieves.

Can be confused: burglar, mugger, robber, thief (see synonym note at the current entry).

Synonyms
burglar, 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 Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To thief

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Thief is always a great word to know.

So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Example Sentences

If you think you face difficult times, imagine you're a car thief.

The thief did not even bother to re-copy the report.

Of course, it is open to a thief who believes his swag might have been so marked to attempt such cleaning himself.

EXPAND

If you think you face difficult times, imagine you're a car thief.

The thief did not even bother to re-copy the report.

Of course, it is open to a thief who believes his swag might have been so marked to attempt such cleaning himself.

The large black birds with a noisy squawk have traditionally held the role of evil-doer or thief in fable and fairy-tales.

The alleged thief was taken into custody but no charges were brought for lack of evidence.

The bike will collapse as the thief tries to ride off with the plunder.

He apparently believes this is a question of moral right vs moral wrong, righteous property owner versus thief.

Or perhaps cities with more guns might be better as the thief is unlikely to know about any given household.

During the six-week journey the guards encountered only a nighttime donkey thief.

It turns out the thief has entered my pocket, and left with my goods, through the phone itself.

All they do is wipe the chip out”, said one teenage thief.

If a thief steals one, they'd be able to sell it for a lot of money.

If a thief takes your iPhone and runs, a new application will help you chase after him.

If my neighbour is a thief, that is not a justification for me being also a thief.

The thief walked out of the gallery with the picture under his painter's smock.

Motions falling outside the learned patterns will be considered to be those of a potential car thief.

Last year a local rugby hero shot dead his teenage daughter, mistaking her for a car thief whom he thought it fine to kill.

And different security levels bunk in the same room, meaning a murderer can sleep beside a thief.

Within hours, not only had people caught glimpses of the car, they had photos of the thief.

The marginal cost of time vs the marginal gain of the item the thief steals.

The thief immediately begged for the video to come down and turned himself in.

Ah, let the thief steal, the tick suck and the baker bake.

So park in a busy area where a thief can't work without raising suspicion.

But now the university's next would-be computer thief might be met with an alarm and a greeting from campus security.

He said the media attention devoted to the theft could inform the thief of.

The thief jumps in and roars off, but he does not get far.

Bella is a thief and will take and chew anything she can get her teeth on.

Of course, with the word iGolf plastered all over the thing, any half intelligent thief is going to know exactly where to look.

Lately, an unknown stapler thief has been wreaking havoc on our office.

Some people believe a thief knocked over a lantern while stealing milk from the barn.

Once the thief is, in theory, in a safe area to be shocked.

He said the media attention devoted to the theft could inform the thief of the sensitive information contained on the laptop.

If a thief gets caught after robbing a bank, the thief is not allowed to keep the money.

In some inner-city neighborhoods, a thief will smash a window for a dime.

The setup is guaranteed to stop any thief without access to either a pair of scissors or a small screwdriver.

But a thief could remove the key's battery and convert it to a mechanical key.

Spaniak has his own theory on why a data thief might falsely link a database to iBill.

He seemed to be a thief himself, and a sneaky one at that.

The widespread availability of personal information has made it easier for a thief to get his hands on.

So if a thief got his hands on your iPhone, he can figure out where you live and loot you there.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

thief (θiːf)

—n , pl thieves
1.	a person who steals something from another
2.	criminal law a person who commits theft

[Old English thēof; related to Old Frisian thiāf, Old Saxon thiof, Old High German diob, Old Norse thjōfr, Gothic thiufs]

'thievish

—*adj*

'thievishly

—*adv*

'thievishness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

thief

O.E. þeof, from P.Gmc. *theubaz (cf. O.Fris. thiaf, O.S. thiof, M.Du. dief, O.H.G. diob, Ger. dieb, O.N. þiofr, Goth. þiufs), probably from PIE *teup- (cf. Lith. tupeti "to crouch down").

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