steal, pilfer, filch, purloin mean to take from another without right or without detection. steal may apply to any surreptitious taking of something and differs from the other terms by commonly applying to intangibles as well as material things.
Steal is the most general: stole a car; steals research from colleagues. To purloin is to make off with something, often in a breach of trust: purloined the key to his cousin's safe-deposit box.
If you steal something from someone, you take it away from them without their permission and without intending to return it. He was accused of stealing a small boy's bicycle. [VERB noun] Bridge stole the money from clients' accounts. [VERB noun + from] Sometimes she had to steal to eat. [VERB]
steal (third-person singular simple present steals, present participle stealing, simple past stole, past participle stolen or (nonstandard, colloquial) stole) (transitive) To take illegally, or without the owner 's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it. quotations
to take (the property of another) without permission or right, esp. secretly or by force: [~ + object] Someone stole my dad's car last night. [no object] The two brothers were always stealing from each other. [~ + object] to take and use (ideas, credit, etc.) without right or acknowledgment.
To steal is take something that isn't yours: thieves steal. But a bargain that's so good it's almost like you're getting away with robbery is also called a steal.
Some common synonyms of steal are filch, pilfer, and purloin. While all these words mean "to take from another without right or without detection," steal may apply to any surreptitious taking of something and differs from the other terms by commonly applying to intangibles as well as material things.
