steal
/stiːl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.41 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
Transitive verb
verb
To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show.
Transitive verb
verb
To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely.
Example Sentences
- "Three irreplaceable paintings were stolen from the gallery."
- "The problem is the two bicycles stolen from us."
- "They stole all my money (from me)."
- "At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them[…]."
- ""I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. I never did that. I always made up my mind I'd be a big man some day, and—I'm glad I didn't steal.""
- "Laura snatches coins from inside a truck to make a telephone call, scrounges shoes and clothes for them at a municipal beach, schemes to get a room key so she and Howie can sleep overnight in the Starlight Motel, steals a Jeepster from a deputy sheriff who's trying to arrest them."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *stelaną Proto-West Germanic *stelan Old English stelan Middle English stelen English steal Inherited from Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan, from Proto-West Germanic *stelan, from Proto-Germanic *stelaną. Cognate with Bavarian stöhn (“to steal”), Dutch stelen (“to steal”), German and Low German stehlen (“to steal”), Luxembourgish stielen (“to steal”), Danish stjæle (“to steal”), Faroese stjala (“to steal”), Icelandic stela (“to steal”), Norwegian Bokmål stjele (“to steal”), Norwegian Nynorsk stela, stele (“to steal”), Swedish stjäla (“to steal”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌽 (stilan, “to steal”). For the meaning development compare with Russian красть (krastʹ, “to steal”) and Russian кра́сться (krástʹsja, “to stalk, to prowl, to slink”). etymology notes Proposed etymologies beyond Germanic are numerous and include * Proto-Indo-European *ster-: compare Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”) * Proto-Indo-European *stel(H)- (“to stretch”): compare Albanian pë/mbështjell (“to confuse, mess up, mix, wrap up”), Old Church Slavonic стєлѭ (steljǫ, “I spread out (bed, roof)”), Ancient Greek τηλία (tēlía, “playing table”) * Proto-Indo-European *tsel- (“to sneak”): compare Sanskrit त्सरति (tsárati, “creep, sneak up on”) and other forms under Pokorny 5. *sel- "schleichen, kriechen"
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ster-, *stel(H)-, *tsel-
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.
Inflected Forms
steals (present, singular)
stealing (participle, present)
stole (past)
stolen (participle, past)
stole (colloquial, nonstandard)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
stole (first person, past)
stealest (archaic, present)
stole (past, second person)
stolest (archaic, past)
stealeth (archaic, present)