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Thief   /θif/   Listen
noun
Thief  n.  (pl. thieves)  
1.
One who steals; one who commits theft or larceny. See Theft. "There came a privy thief, men clepeth death." "Where thieves break through and steal."
2.
A waster in the snuff of a candle.
Thief catcher. Same as Thief taker.
Thief leader, one who leads or takes away a thief.
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.)
Synonyms: Robber; pilferer. 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." "Some roving robber calling to his fellows."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Thief" Quotes from Famous Books



... the momentary shock, left Ferris and charged at the prostrate thief's assailant. But Chum met him, with a fierce eagerness, more than ...
— His Dog • Albert Payson Terhune

... it is the same girl? [Stares at her.] Yes, it is she. [Starts to run toward her, then catches sight of ring.] What! my ring? You robbed me while I lay senseless! Oh, do not believe your eyes, you said. No! for now I have my first lesson—I wanted to embrace an angel, and I find a thief. ...
— Lucky Pehr • August Strindberg

... the eggs kept going, and nobody knew where; for they all felt when the magpie said "Tar-tar," and flew away, that he had spoken openly and honourably, and was not the thief. At last one evening, when all the birds were as busy as their old friends the bees, all of a sudden there was a complete full stop throughout the garden, for from one of the low branches of the great cedar someone suddenly shouted out in a full, loud, and distinct ...
— Featherland - How the Birds lived at Greenlawn • George Manville Fenn

... mounted gentleman, who, addressing him politely by name, demanded his watch and purse, which Moody surrendered, under the influence of "the better part of valor." Having done so, however, he was obliged to request his "very genteel" thief to give him enough money to pay his turnpike on his way into town, where he was going to act, whereupon the "gentleman of the road" returned him half-a-crown, and bade him a polite "Good-evening." Some time after ...
— Records of Later Life • Frances Anne Kemble

... much loss in the world, where men war ceaselessly with sorrow, and time like a strong thief strips all men of all they prize. Yet when the emperor is beaten in battle and his broad lands are lost, he, shrugging, says, 'In the next battle I may conquer.' And when the bearded merchant's ship is lost at sea, he says, 'The next voyage, belike, will ...
— Figures of Earth • James Branch Cabell


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