(v. i.) To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practice petty theft.
(v. t.) To take by petty theft; to filch; to steal little by little.
Example Sentences:
(1) I first had stuffed vine leaves at my grandad's guesthouse in Southend, and deeply regret not pilfering his recipe before he passed away.
(2) Bavarian public gardens are regularly pilfered for their hydrangea flowers.
(3) Harry Kane’s third goal in four caps was crisply pilfered 10 minutes into his cameo.
(4) BITS AND BOBS A Colombian teacher has been accused of pilfering stickers from pupils to complete his own Panini World Cup album.
(5) Among the things she pilfered were a pair of white trainers belonging to Kelly.
(6) Once on a system, it would detect when a user was visiting a banking website, create fake login sections of that site and then pilfer banking logins.
(7) Gyles commission into productivity in the building industry in New South Wales In 1992 Roger Gyles QC described illegal activities in the NSW building industry, ranging from physical violence and a threat of physical violence at one end to petty pilfering of building materials at the other.
(8) Habré escaped, eventually to Senegal , with some $12m pilfered from national bank accounts, which he reportedly put towards the purchase of two mansions and, it is widely believed, enough Senegalese newspaper editors, police officials, religious leaders and politicians to keep the heat off for years to come.
(9) The significant weapons stockpiles, largely unguarded and unwatched, from which arms could easily be pilfered, provide the temptations of war for anyone who may see Gaddafi's overthrow as an opportunity to advance their agendas in non-democratic ways.
(10) The equaliser was pilfered on the break, Adebayor sending Roberto Soldado scurrying down the left, where he collected and conjured a glorious centre, which arced into the six-yard box for the Togolese to exploit space between Jos Hooiveld and Fox and volley home.
(11) There were "small incidents" with Roma accused of pilfering firewood or vegetables and other petty crime, but only 12 "petty larcenies" were reported to police during the first four months of 2011.
(12) Paglia accuses Gaga of stealing from Madonna, but Madge pilfered sounds and imagery from everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Daft Punk .
(13) Last week's episode of Midsomer Murders featured a grasping son and daughter pilfering money from their mother and bumping off their stepfather to disguise the crime.
(14) But there are also distinctions in the lower classes: the tension between the country servants, who feel part of a centuries-old tradition of duty, and the town servants, who see the ruling class as opponents to outwit in small victories of pilfering.
(15) Belgian monks hide their altarpieces, a swastika flag flutters in front of the Eiffel Tower, and Adolf Hitler is pilfering art from all over Europe to build a collection for his planned Führermuseum .
(16) A couple of weeks ago they were on the receiving end of an injustice here when Tottenham Hotspur pilfered a late winner.
(17) "Luxembourg is like the club member who enjoys all the benefits of membership while quietly pilfering from the kitty" Richard Brooks “It might be an underhand way to run a tax system, but it serves Luxembourg well.
(18) The granaries were pilfered with no account of why the stores were empty.
(19) It's ubiquitous at our tables, with dishes pilfered from all corners of the world – from creamy risottos to perfumed pilafs and paellas, sushi rolls and kedgeree – not to mention all manner of polystyrene-like crackers, cereals and "cakes".
(20) They allege that his holdings, including a luxurious seven-storey townhouse on one of Paris's most expensive streets and several dozen others apartments, must have been amassed by pilfering Syrian public funds and abusing power.
Purloin
Definition:
(v. t.) To take or carry away for one's self; hence, to steal; to take by theft; to filch.
(v. i.) To practice theft; to steal.
Example Sentences:
(1) And those who get their kicks from purloining stuff that they’re expected to pay for were especially grumpy.
(2) New York district judge J Paul Oetken noted the difficulty of determining copyright infringement in the historical fiction realm where US laws did not protect repetition of known historical facts, only the purloining of imaginative ideas relating to them.
(3) Analysing the list afterwards I recalled that as a young man of 20 I had done a similar accounting, for three years, in a blank wireless operator's logbook purloined from the Royal Air Force.
(4) Other Poe titles: Stories: The Murders in the Rue Morgue; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Purloined Letter; The Masque of the Red Death; The Imp of the Perverse; The Pit and the Pendulum.
(5) Case (forename redundant, like any good hard-boiled antihero) is a recognisable type purloined from detective fiction: hard-bitten, brave, apparently cynical but in fact humane.
(6) Osborne has purloined the word “affordable” to mean the opposite – an 80% of market rent that typical council renters can’t afford.
(7) Corruption is a cross-national issue and weak financial oversight only encourages the abuse of power and fiscal malfeasance by offering a safe and easily accessible hiding place for purloined funds.
(8) It’s purloined material, taken by unknown people for unknown reasons, then distributed, no questions asked, by media organisations around the world, including the Guardian, as if this complex criminal act was some sort of glorious trivia windfall – a cargo of fun washed up on the beach.
(9) Six points and a game in hand over their nearest challengers, the characteristics of their play at both ends of this victory bode well – two quality goals in the opening 10 minutes and a clinical purloining of the points with less than a quarter of an hour remaining – their subservience to a spirited Hull in between forgotten as they enter the international break.
(10) I smoked my first adult-sized fag at the age of 10: a John Player Superking purloined from my best friend's dad while he was innocently buying us Funny Feet.
(11) The Lib Dems have always been peeved that George Osborne has sought to purloin the credit for what the Lib Dems regard as one of their big wins in government.
(12) 9.52pm BST 64 min: Neymar again fails to beat his man, Carvajal watching his tricks and then purloining the ball before the Brazilian could get near the box.
(13) The reporters conferred with Snowden to negotiate release of the material and then used their extensive backgrounds covering national security to explore the purloined files and reveal their stunning import, describing how the NSA gathered information on untold millions of unsuspecting – and unsuspected – Americans, plugged into the communications links of major internet companies and coerced companies like Yahoo and Google into turning over data about their customers,” the statement announcing the awards said.
(14) I stood in the bathroom naked and counted all the mini hotel toiletries that I have purloined when on tour.
(15) Warner needs at least one film to begin introducing its lineup of masked crime fighters – and doing it this way avoids any accusation that the studio has simply purloined Marvel's hugely successful blueprint (which involved giving each hero his own movie before teaming them up in The Avengers).
(16) The name Goldfinger was purloined from the architect Erno Goldfinger, who did not feel so relaxed about it .