purloining
purloining is the present participle and gerund of purloin.
Meaning of purloin
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...
- 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
Noun
purloining (plural purloinings)
- theft
- […] I must require you to use diligence in presenting especially those purloinings and imbezlements, which are of plate, vessel, or whatsoever within the King's house.c. 1613–1621, Francis Bacon, The judicial charge upon the commission of Oyer and Terminer held for the verge of the Court
Forms of purloining
| plural | purloinings |
|---|
Questions about purloining
- What does purloining mean?
- Purloining means theft.
- What is purloining the present participle and gerund of?
- Purloining is the present participle and gerund of purloin.
- What part of speech is purloining?
- Purloining is a noun.
- What is the plural of purloining?
- The plural of purloining is purloinings.
Words near purloining in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: purloining (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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Cite this entry: “purloining.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/purloining. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.