Adjacent Words

Thief definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

THIEF, n. plu. thieves.
1. One who secretly, unlawfully and feloniously takes the goods or personal property of another. The thief takes the property of another privately; the robber by open force.
2. One who takes the property of another wrongfully, either secretly or by violence. Job 30.
3. One who seduces by false doctrine. John 10.
4. One who makes it his business to cheat and defraud; as a den of thieves. Matthew 21.
5. An excrescence in the snuff of a candle.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it [syn: thief, stealer]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural thieves) Etymology: Middle English theef, from Old English th?of; akin to Old High German diob thief Date: before 12th century one that steals especially stealthily or secretly; also one who commits theft or larceny

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. thieves) a person who steals esp. secretly and without violence. Etymology: OE theof f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Waster Wast"er, n. [OE. wastour, OF. wasteor, gasteor. See Waste, v. t.] 1. One who, or that which, wastes; one who squanders; one who consumes or expends extravagantly; a spendthrift; a prodigal. He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. --Prov. xviii. 9. Sconces are great wasters of candles. --Swift. 2. An imperfection in the wick of a candle, causing it to waste; -- called also a thief. --Halliwell. 3. A kind of cudgel; also, a blunt-edged sword used as a foil. Half a dozen of veneys at wasters with a good fellow for a broken head. --Beau. & Fl. Being unable to wield the intellectual arms of reason, they are fain to betake them unto wasters. --Sir T. Browne.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Thief Thief (th[=e]f), n.; pl. Thieves (th[=e]vz). [OE. thef, theef, AS. [thorn]e['o]f; akin to OFries. thiaf, OS. theof, thiof, D. dief, G. dieb, OHG. diob, Icel. [thorn]j[=o]fr, Sw. tjuf, Dan. tyv, Goth. [thorn]iufs, [thorn]iubs, and perhaps to Lith. tupeti to squat or crouch down. Cf. Theft.] 1. One who steals; one who commits theft or larceny. See Theft. There came a privy thief, men clepeth death. --Chaucer. Where thieves break through and steal. --Matt. vi. 19. 2. A waster in the snuff of a candle. --Bp. Hall. Thief catcher. Same as Thief taker. Thief leader, one who leads or takes away a thief. --L'Estrange. Thief taker, one whose business is to find and capture thieves and bring them to justice. Thief tube, a tube for withdrawing a sample of a liquid from a cask. Thieves' vinegar, a kind of aromatic vinegar for the sick room, taking its name from the story that thieves, by using it, were enabled to plunder, with impunity to health, in the great plague at London. [Eng.] Syn: Robber; pilferer. Usage: Thief, Robber. A thief takes our property by stealth; a robber attacks us openly, and strips us by main force. Take heed, have open eye, for thieves do foot by night. --Shak. Some roving robber calling to his fellows. --Milton.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(thieves) A thief is a person who steals something from another person. The thieves snatched the camera. ...car thieves. N-COUNT

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

thef: In the Old Testament the uniform translation (17 times) of gannabh, from ganabh, "steal," but gannabh is rather broader than the English "thief," and may even include a kidnapper (De 24:7). In Apocrypha and the New Testament, the King James Version uses "thief" indifferently for kleptes, and lestes, but the Revised Version (British and American) always renders the latter word by "robber" (a great improvement), See CRIMES. The figurative use of thief" as one coming without warning" (Mt 24:43, etc.) needs no explanation.

The penitent thief ("robber," the Revised Version (British and American) Mr 15:27; Mt 27:38,44; "malefactor," Lu 23:32,39) was one of the two criminals crucified with Christ. According to Mark and Matthew, both of these joined in the crowd's mockery, but Luke tells that one of them reproached his fellow for the insults, acknowledged his own guilt, and begged Christ to remember him at the coming of the Kingdom. And Christ replied by promising more than was asked--immediate admission into Paradise. It should be noted that unusual moral courage was needed for the thief to make his request at such a time and under such circumstances, and that his case has little in common with certain sentimental "death-bed repentances."

To explain the repentance and the acknowledgment of Christ as Messiah, some previous acquaintance of the thief with Christ must be supposed, but all guesses as to time and place are of course useless. Later tradition abundantly filled the blanks and gave the penitent thief the name Titus or Dysmas.

See ASSASSINS; BARABBAS.

Burton Scott Easton

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Pilferer, petty robber, filcher. 2. Swindler, peculator, embezzler, defrauder, sharper, defaulter. 3. Pickpocket, cutpurse, pick-purse. 4. Burglar, house-breaker, cracksman (cant). 5. Footpad, highwayman.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

You are a thief and a murderer, you have killed a baboon and stole his face; vulgar abuse.

Moby Thesaurus

Judas, bad person, bandit, betrayer, booster, brigand, buccaneer, burglar, cat burglar, cat man, charlatan, cheat, con artist, con man, confidence man, convict, corsair, cracksman, criminal, crook, cutpurse, dacoit, deceiver, delinquent, desperado, desperate criminal, dip, double-dealer, embezzler, evildoer, felon, filcher, filibuster, flimflam man, footpad, freebooter, fugitive, gallows bird, gangster, gaolbird, gunman, highwayman, hijacker, housebreaker, jailbird, kleptomaniac, larcener, larcenist, lawbreaker, lifter, malefactor, malevolent, malfeasant, malfeasor, marauder, misfeasor, mobster, mountebank, mugger, nip, outlaw, peculator, picaroon, pickpocket, pilferer, pirate, plunderer, poacher, prig, privateer, public enemy, purloiner, quisling, racketeer, robber, ruffian, scofflaw, sea rover, second-story man, sharper, shoplifter, sinner, stealer, swindler, thug, traitor, transgressor, trickster, two-timer, villain, worker of ill, wrongdoer