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once a thief, always a thief

once a thief, always a thief proverb: a person found to have stolen another's property will always be marked as a thief.

Proverb

once a thief, always a thief

  1. A person found to have stolen another's property will always be marked as a thief.

Phrase

once a thief, always a thief

  1. Said in admonishment to a person who was once considered a thief and later professed to have reformed, only to have been caught stealing once again.

Questions about once a thief, always a thief

What does once a thief, always a thief mean?
Once a thief, always a thief means a person found to have stolen another's property will always be marked as a thief.
What part of speech is once a thief, always a thief?
Once a thief, always a thief can be a proverb or a phrase.

Words near once a thief, always a thief in the dictionary

  1. oncaeids
  2. oncame
  3. once
  4. once a man, twice a boy
  5. once a man, twice a child
  6. once a thief, always a thief
  7. once a woman, twice a child
  8. once again
  9. once an adult and twice a child
  10. once an adult, twice a child
  11. once an awhile

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: once a thief, always a thief (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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