Word.ws English Dictionary

purloined

purloined is the simple past and past participle of purloin.

Meaning of purloin

Verb

purloin (third-person singular simple present purloins, present participle purloining, simple past and past participle purloined)

  1. (formal, humorous, transitive, usually) 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...
  2. (intransitive) 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

Questions about purloined

What is purloined the simple past and past participle of?
Purloined is the simple past and past participle of purloin.

Words near purloined in the dictionary

  1. purlines
  2. purling
  3. purlings
  4. purlins
  5. purloin
  6. purloined
  7. purloiner
  8. purloiners
  9. purloining
  10. purloinings
  11. purloinment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purloined (page history and authors); purloin (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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