purloin
/pɜːˈlɔɪn/
purloin verb: to take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.
Verb
purloin (third-person singular simple present purloins, present participle purloining, simple past and past participle purloined)
- To take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.
- Had from his wakeful custody purloined / The guarded gold.1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Probably my acquaintance, Mr Blank, therefore, would have been able, if he had so wished to do, to purloin the papers which he mentioned.1900, One Who Was in It, chapter 8, in Kruger's Secret Service, pages 168–169
- To commit theft; to thieve.
- The Apostle expressly forbiddeth servants to purloin (Titus 2:10).1622, William Gouge, Of Domestical Duties, published 2006, →ISBN, page 454
purloin meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
purloin in Tamil
- வஞ்சித்துப் பெறு, திருடு
purloin in Urdu
- چرانا
purloin in Bengali
- চুরি করা, আত্মসাৎ করা
purloin in Malayalam
- thieve, steal, rob
- മോഷ്ടിക്കുക, ചൂണ്ടുക, കളവു ചെയ്യുക, ചില്ലറക്കളവു ചെയ്യുക, ചെറുകളവു ചെയ്ക, അല്ലറചില്ലറ മോഷണം നടത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
- purloin in Kannada
- ಕದಿ, ಎಗರಿಸು
Examples of purloin in a sentence
- Some one had left his set in the middle of the dance, purloined a sandwich from the buffet, and was now chewing away proudly as he swerved and stamped, to the amusement of the rest.1916, chapter 4, in A. Cecil Curtis, transl., Royal Highness, translation of Königliche Hoheit by Thomas Mann:
- Stink had purloined during his career as a gentleman thief?2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
Forms of purloin
| third-person singular present | purloins |
|---|---|
| present participle | purloining |
| past participle | purloined |
| past | purloined |
Origin of purloin
From Middle English purloynen (“to remove”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman purloigner (“to put far away”), one of the variants of Old French porloignier. Doublet of prolong.
Words formed from purloin
Words that rhyme with purloin
6 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about purloin
- What does purloin mean?
- Purloin means to take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.
- What is purloin in Tamil?
- Purloin in Tamil is வஞ்சித்துப் பெறு, திருடு. See Purloin meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use purloin in a sentence?
- Some one had left his set in the middle of the dance, purloined a sandwich from the buffet, and was now chewing away proudly as he swerved and stamped, to the amusement of the rest.
- What part of speech is purloin?
- Purloin is a verb.
- How do you pronounce purloin?
- Purloin is pronounced /pɜːˈlɔɪn/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of purloin?
- The past tense of purloin is purloined.
Words near purloin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: purloin (page history and authors); purloin (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); purloin (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); purloin (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); purloin (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); purloin (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-purloin.wav.
Cite this entry: “purloin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/purloin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.