steal

English

Etymology

From Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan, from Proto-Germanic *stelaną (compare West Frisian stelle, Low German stehlen, Dutch stelen, German stehlen, Danish stjæle, Norwegian stjele); see below for more.

etymology notes

Proposed etymologies beyond Germanic are numerous and include

  • Proto-Indo-European *ster-: compare Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”)[1]
  • Proto-Indo-European *stel(H)- (“to stretch”): compare Albanian pë/mbështjell (“I confuse, mess up, mix, wrap up”), Old Church Slavonic стєлѭ (steljǫ, “I spread out (bed, roof)”), Ancient Greek τηλία (tēlía, “playing table”)[2]
  • Proto-Indo-European *tsel- (“to sneak”): compare Sanskrit त्सरति (tsárati, “creep, sneak up on”) and other forms under Pokorny 5. *sel- "schleichen, kriechen"[3]

Pronunciation
  • enPR: stēl, IPA(key): /stiːl/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːl
  • Homophones: steel, stele

Verb

steal (third-person singular simple present steals, present participle stealing, simple past stole, past participle stolen)

  1. (transitive) To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else.
    Three irreplaceable paintings were stolen from the gallery.
    • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, OCLC 519072825, page 202:
      At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […].
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:
      "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. I never did that. I always made up my mind I'd be a big man some day, and—I'm glad I didn't steal."
  2. (transitive, of ideas, words, music, a look, credit, etc.) To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement.
    They stole my idea for a biodegradable, disposable garbage de-odorizer.
  3. (transitive) To get or effect surreptitiously or artfully.
    He stole glances at the pretty woman across the street.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Isaac Watts
      Variety of objects has a tendency to steal away the mind from its steady pursuit of any subject.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon
      Always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, […] and do not think to steal it.
    • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, OCLC 519072825, page 202:
      At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […].
  4. (transitive, colloquial) To acquire at a low price.
    He stole the car for two thousand less than its book value.
  5. (transitive) To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show.
  6. (intransitive) To move silently or secretly.
    He stole across the room, trying not to wake her.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Ch.1:
      "Did he take his bottle well?" Mrs. Flanders whispered, and Rebecca nodded and went to the cot and turned down the quilt, and Mrs. Flanders bent over and looked anxiously at the baby, asleep, but frowning. The window shook, and Rebecca stole like a cat and wedged it.
    • 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1-6 Man City”, in BBC Sport:
      United's hopes of mounting a serious response suffered a blow within two minutes of the restart when Evans, who had endured a miserable afternoon, lost concentration and allowed Balotelli to steal in behind him. The defender's only reaction was to haul the Italian down, resulting in an inevitable red card.
  7. To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser
      They could insinuate and steal themselves under the same by their humble carriage and submission.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
      He will steal himself into a man's favour.
  8. (transitive, baseball) To advance safely to (another base) during the delivery of a pitch, without the aid of a hit, walk, passed ball, wild pitch, or defensive indifference.
  9. (sports, transitive) To dispossess
    • 2011 February 12, Les Roopanarine, “Birmingham 1-0 Stoke”, in BBC:
      However, until Gardner stole the ball from Dean Whitehead in the centre circle with the half-hour approaching, setting off on a run which culminated with a testing long-range shot - with debutant Obafemi Martins lurking, Begovic gathered at the second time of asking - Stoke looked the more credible contenders to break the deadlock.
  10. (humorous, transitive) To acquire; to get
    Hold on, I need to steal a phone from the office. I'll be back real quick.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Troponyms

Derived terms
Terms derived from steal (verb)

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

Noun

steal (plural steals)

  1. The act of stealing.
  2. A piece of merchandise available at a very attractive price.
    At this price, this car is a steal.
  3. (basketball, ice hockey) A situation in which a defensive player actively takes possession of the ball or puck from the opponent's team.
  4. (baseball) A stolen base.
  5. (curling) Scoring in an end without the hammer.
  6. (computing) A policy in database systems that a database follows which allows a transaction to be written on nonvolatile storage before its commit occurs.

Synonyms
  • (merchandise available at a very attractive price): bargain

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

References
  1. J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, s.v. "steal" (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999), 543.
  2. Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.v. "stelanan" (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2003), 374.
  3. Guus Kroonen and Alexander Lubotsky, Proto-Indo-European *tsel- 'to sneak' and Germanic *stelan- 'to steal, approach stealthily', Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia vol. 14 (2009).

Anagrams
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