Word.ws English Dictionary

pilfre

pilfre is the obsolete spelling of pilfer.

Meaning of pilfer

Verb

pilfer (third-person singular simple present pilfers, present participle pilfering, simple past and past participle pilfered)

  1. (ambitransitive) To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practise petty theft.
    • pilfer goods

Forms of pilfre

third-person singular presentpilfres
present participlepilfring
past participlepilfred
pastpilfred

Origin of pilfre

From Middle English pilfre (“booty”), from Old French pelfre (“plunder, booty, spoils”), of unknown origin. Compare pelf.

Questions about pilfre

What is pilfre the obsolete spelling of?
Pilfre is the obsolete spelling of pilfer.

Words near pilfre in the dictionary

  1. pilferingly
  2. pilferings
  3. pilferproof
  4. pilfers
  5. pilfery
  6. pilfre
  7. pilfred
  8. pilfres
  9. pilfring
  10. pilgarlic
  11. pilgarlick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pilfre (page history and authors); pilfer (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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Cite this entry: “pilfre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pilfre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.