- steal
- steal, *pilfer, filch, purloin, lift, pinch, snitch, swipe, cop are comparable when they mean to take another's possession without right and without his knowledge or permission.Steal, the commonest and most general of the group, can refer to any act of taking without right, although it suggests strongly a furtiveness or secrecy in the act{
steal a pocketbook
}{steal jewels
}{steal a kiss
}{steal a glance at someone
}Pilfer suggests stealing in small amounts or with cautious stealth and often bit by bit{the pantry mouse that pilfers our food— Gustafson et al
}{the ladies of unexceptionable position who are caught pilfering furs in shops— L. P. Smith
}{pilfer the secret files of the foreign office— Morgenthau
}Filch is close to pilfer but may suggest more strongly the use of active though surreptitious means, especially quick snatching{in pursuit of a thief who had filched an overcoat— McKenzie Porter
}{a lot of fellows were too hungry to wait, and so some of the rations were filched— Autry
}{a bulky, dark youth in spectacles . . . filching biscuits from a large tin— Sayers
}Purloin usually shifts the stress onto the idea of removal or making away with for one's own use, often becoming generalized to include such acts as plundering or plagiarism{had purloined $386,920 from the New York realty management firm for which he worked, then absconded— Time
}{added theft to her other sin, and having found your watch in your bedroom had purloined it— Butler d. 1902
}{to quote him is not to purloin— Dryden
}Lift, when it does not mean specifically to steal by surreptitiously taking from counters or displays in stores, is used frequently in spoken English in the sense of purloin{women shoplifters often work in gangs of three. Two act as shields while the third does the lifting— The Irish Digest
}{lift money from the cash register
}{imitators who lifted everything except the shirt off his back— F. S. Fitzgerald
}Pinch, swipe, snitch, and cop are virtually interchangeable with filch.Pinch and swipe are often used in place of steal to suggest an act morally less reprehensible{loot having been pinched by him from the British ship Mary Dyer—Sydney Bulletin
}or sometimes more dashing{well-dressed crooks really did steal the Gold Cup at Ascot . . . drove up in a handsome car . . . and pinched the cup out of the Royal Enclosure— J. D. Carr
}{the bloke who pinched my photographs— Richard Llewellyn
}and occasionally to suggest a petty meanness{Covering outside the dying butler's bedroom waiting to . . . pop in and swipe the old man's private notebooks— Time
}Snitch possibly stresses more the removal by quick, furtive snatching{while he was bathing, somebody snitched his uniform— Wodehouse
}{snitched people's ideas without telling them— Sayers
}Cop usually lays stress upon quick, often spur-of-the-moment filching or purloining{some woman put on a dinner gown, mingled with guests, copped fifty thousand bucks in jewelry— Gardner
}{ran home and copped a piece of beefsteak from his old lady— Farrell
}Analogous words: *rob, plunder, rifle, loot, burglarize
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
