Past tense of pilfer
regular verb
The past tense of pilfer is pilfered. The past participle is also pilfered.
Forms of pilfer
| Base form (V1) | pilfer /ˈpɪl.fə/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | pilfered |
| Past participle (V3) | pilfered |
| Present participle | pilfering |
| Third person singular | pilfers |
Pilfered in a sentence
- Office supplies often get pilfered by employees.
- The truck carrying 413,793 units of a “new chocolate range”, about 12 tons of chocolate bars, was pilfered while driving through Europe on 26 March, Agence France-Presse reported.2026 March 28, Gloria Oladipo, “Sugar high(st): more than twelve tons of KitKat’s ‘new chocolate range’ stolen in Italy”, in The Guardian...
- The other afternoon Silly here pilfered a melody from the classics, threw a little jazz at it and I plumbered some words.1925 February 7, C[arleton] S[tevens] Montanye, “Swan’s Song”, in The Popular Magazine, volume LXXV, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Street &…. From the entry plumber
Meaning of pilfer
- verb To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practise petty theft.
Questions about the past tense of pilfer
- What is the past tense of pilfer?
- The past tense of pilfer is pilfered.
- What is the past participle of pilfer?
- The past participle of pilfer is pilfered.
- Is pilfer a regular or irregular verb?
- Pilfer is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pilfer (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of pilfer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/pilfer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.