What does theft mean?

Definitions for theft
θɛfttheft

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word theft.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. larceny, theft, thievery, thieving, stealingnoun

    the act of taking something from someone unlawfully

    "the thieving is awful at Kennedy International"

Wiktionary

  1. theftnoun

    The act of stealing property.

  2. Etymology: þyft, þeoft, earlier þiefþ, þeofþ, from þiubiþō, from þeubaz. Cognate with Old Norse þeoft, þeofð and (obsolete) Dutch diefte. Compare thief, -th.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Theftnoun

    Etymology: from theif.

    Theft is an unlawful felonious taking away of another man’s goods against the owner’s knowledge or will. John Cowell.

    His thefts were too open, his filching was like an unskilful singer, he kept not time. William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor.

    Their nurse Euriphile,
    Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children. William Shakespeare.

    If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether ox, ass, or sheep, he shall restore double. Exod. xxii. 4.

Wikipedia

  1. Theft

    Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word theft is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as larceny, robbery, embezzlement, extortion, blackmail, or receiving stolen property. In some jurisdictions, theft is considered to be synonymous with larceny, while in others, theft is defined more narrowly. Someone who carries out an act of theft may be described as a "thief" (PL: thieves).Theft is the name of a statutory offence in California, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the Australian states of South Australia and Victoria.

ChatGPT

  1. theft

    Theft is the act of taking another person's property without their consent and with the intent to permanently deprive them of it. This action is illegal and punishable by law. It can include various methods such as directly stealing items, deceiving someone into handing over possessions, or unlawfully intercepting and using personal information.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Theftnoun

    the act of stealing; specifically, the felonious taking and removing of personal property, with an intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same; larceny

  2. Theftnoun

    the thing stolen

Wikidata

  1. Theft

    In common usage, theft is the taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting, library theft and fraud. In some jurisdictions, theft is considered to be synonymous with larceny; in others, theft has replaced larceny. Someone who carries out an act of or makes a career of theft is known as a thief. The act of theft is known by terms such as stealing, thieving, wicksing, and filching. Theft is the name of a statutory offence in California, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Victoria.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Theft

    theft, n. act of thieving.—adj. Theft′ūous, thievish.—adv. Theft′ūously. [A.S. theófth, thýfththeóf, thief.]

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Theft

    Unlawful act of taking property.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'theft' in Nouns Frequency: #1857

How to pronounce theft?

How to say theft in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of theft in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of theft in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of theft in a Sentence

  1. Jason Glassberg:

    All it would take is to keep up this level of pressure on Sony, its employees, executives, business partners and talent for the foreseeable future and then I think you could actually see something as big as Sony Pictures go under, estimates are pegging (losses) at over $100 million, but that is before the inevitable lawsuits from everyone. Plus the damage to the reputation to the brand is almost incalculable, then there’s also the cost for providing ID theft protection to 50,000 current and former employees, etc. These hackers could target more Sony projects and divisions down the road, making the cost of damage significantly worse.

  2. Roger Stanton:

    What Mr. Dennis may have thought was a nickel and dime theft was, in the end, the equivalent of a major bank heist, now, he will be a convicted felon who must repay all the stolen money.

  3. Dave Jevans:

    GDPR will negatively impact the overall security of the internet and will also inadvertently aid cybercriminals, by restricting access to critical information, the new law will significantly hinder investigations into cybercrime, cryptocurrency theft, phishing, ransomware, malware, fraud and crypto-jacking.

  4. President Barack Obama:

    We have agreed that neither the U.S. or the Chinese government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information for commercial advantage. In addition, we'll work together and with other nations to promote international rules of the road for appropriate conduct in cyberspace.

  5. Peter Dutton:

    We have a very important trading relationship with China – incredibly important, but we are not going to allow university students to be unduly influenced, we are not going to allow theft of intellectual property, and we are not going to allow our government bodies or non-government bodies to be hacked into.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

theft#1#5160#10000

Translations for theft

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for theft »

Translation

Find a translation for the theft definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"theft." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/theft>.

Discuss these theft definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for theft? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    theft

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    the act of catching an object with the hands
    A abandon
    B snap
    C sweep
    D pluck

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for theft: