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Steal   /stil/   Listen
verb
Steal  v. t.  (past stole; past part. stolen; pres. part. stealing)  
1.
To take, and carry away, feloniously; to take without right or leave, and with intent to keep wrongfully; as, to steal the personal goods of another. "Maugre thy heed, thou must for indigence Or steal, or beg, or borrow, thy dispense." "The man who stole a goose and gave away the giblets in alms."
2.
To withdraw or convey clandestinely (reflexive); hence, to creep furtively, or to insinuate. "They could insinuate and steal themselves under the same by their humble carriage and submission." "He will steal himself into a man's favor."
3.
To gain by insinuating arts or covert means. "So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel."
4.
To get into one's power gradually and by imperceptible degrees; to take possession of by a gradual and imperceptible appropriation; with away. "Variety of objects has a tendency to steal away the mind from its steady pursuit of any subject."
5.
To accomplish in a concealed or unobserved manner; to try to carry out secretly; as, to steal a look. "Always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly,... and do not think to steal it."
To steal a march, to march in a covert way; to gain an advantage unobserved; formerly followed by of, but now by on or upon, and sometimes by over; as, to steal a march upon one's political rivals. "She yesterday wanted to steal a march of poor Liddy." "Fifty thousand men can not easily steal a march over the sea."
Synonyms: To filch; pilfer; purloin; thieve.


Steal  v. i.  (past stole; past part. stolen; pres. part. stealing)  
1.
To practice, or be guilty of, theft; to commit larceny or theft. "Thou shalt not steal."
2.
To withdraw, or pass privily; to slip in, along, or away, unperceived; to go or come furtively. "Fixed of mind to avoid further entreaty, and to fly all company, one night she stole away." "From whom you now must steal, and take no leave." "A soft and solemn breathing sound Rose like a steam of rich, distilled perfumes, And stole upon the air."


noun
Stale  n.  (Written also steal, stele, etc)  The stock or handle of anything; as, the stale of a rake. "But seeing the arrow's stale without, and that the head did go No further than it might be seen."


Steal  n.  A handle; a stale, or stele. (Archaic or Prov. Eng.) "And in his hand a huge poleax did bear. Whose steale was iron-studded but not long."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Steal" Quotes from Famous Books



... Paris invested on the north, that, although accompanied by an escort of sixty horse, Castelnau was driven back into the faubourgs when making an attempt by night to proceed by one of the roads leading in this direction. He was then forced to steal down the left bank of the Seine to Poissy, before he could find means to avoid the Huguenot posts. Memoires, ...
— History of the Rise of the Huguenots - Volume 2 • Henry Baird
... They are a long time before they take liberties. So we trust them, and take them seriously, and allow intimacies which we should refuse to French boys unless formally engaged. But it is all camouflage. At heart your English young men are just flirts. They play with us, make fools of us, steal our hearts, and then go away, and often do not send so much as a post-card. Not even one little post-card to the girls who weep their hearts out for them! You English are all hypocrites. You boast that you 'play the game.' I know your ...
— Now It Can Be Told • Philip Gibbs
... memory, and some share of cunning, with the help of walking a-nights over heaths and church-yards, with this, and showing the tricks of that there dog, whom I stole from the serjeant of a marching regiment (and by the way, he can steal too upon occasion), I make shift to pick up a livelihood. My trade, indeed, is none of the honestest; yet people are not much cheated neither who give a few half-pence for a prospect of happiness, which I have heard some persons say is all a man can arrive at in this world. But I must bid you ...
— The Man of Feeling • Henry Mackenzie
... little stocking where it used to hang, and feel For one moment all the old thoughts and the old hopes o'er me steal. But, oh! loved and loving faces, in the firelight's dancing glow, There will never come another like that ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two • Various
... possess such treasures was only matched by the generosity with which he parted with them; and his daughter well remembers the feeling of angry suspicion with which she and her brother noted the periodical arrival of a certain visitor who would be closeted with their father for hours, and steal away before the supper time, when the family would meet, with some precious parcel of books or prints under ...
— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr


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