thief
/ˈθiːf/
thief noun: one who carries out a theft.
Noun
thief (plural thieves)
- One who carries out a theft.
- water-thieves and land-thievesc. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- One who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.
- Take heed to false harlots, and more, ye wot what. / If noise ye heare, / Looke all be cleare: / Least drabs doe noie thee, / And theeues destroie thee.1878, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam]...
- A waster in the snuff of a candle.
- But hear you, my Worthy Brethren: do not you, where you see a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher[…]1640, Joseph Hall, Divine Light
thief meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
thief in Hindi
- one who carries out theft
- चोर cor, दुज़्द duzd, दुज्द dujd, सारिक़ sāriq, सारिक sārik, सारिक़ा sāriqā
thief in Tamil
- one who carries out theft
- திருடன் tiruṭaṉ, திருடி tiruṭi, திருடர் tiruṭar, கள்ளன் kaḷḷaṉ, கள்ளி kaḷḷi, கள்ளர் kaḷḷar
thief in Marathi
- one who carries out theft
- चोर cor
thief in Urdu
- one who carries out theft
- چور cor, دُزْد duzd, سارِق sāriq, سارِقَہ sāriqa
More languagesFewer languages
- thief in Bengali
- চোর cōr
- thief in Telugu
- దొంగ doṅga
- thief in Malayalam
- കള്ളൻ kaḷḷaṉ, മോഷ്ടാവ് mōṣṭāvŭ
- thief in Kannada
- ಕಳ್ಳ kaḷḷa
- thief in Punjabi
- ਚੋਰ cor
- thief in Gujarati
- દસ્યુ dasyu
- thief in Odia
- ଚୋର cora
- thief in Sanskrit
- चोर cora, चोरी corī
- thief in Sinhala
- හොරා horā
- thief in Assamese
- চোৰ sür
- thief in Nepali
- चोर cor
- thief in Pashto
- غل ǧal
- thief in Tagalog
- magnanakaw
- thief in Arabic
- لِصّ liṣṣ, لِصَّة liṣṣa, سَارِق sāriq, سَارِقَة sāriqa
- thief in Malay
- pencuri
- thief in Indonesian
- pencuri
- thief in Thai
- ขโมย kà-mooi, โจร joon
- thief in Vietnamese
- kẻ trộm, kẻ cắp, kẻ ăn trộm
- thief in Myanmar
- သူခိုး suhkui:
- Kashmiri
- ژوٗر ċūr
Examples of thief in a sentence
- The policeman broke sixty on a residential street in his hurry to catch the thief.
- The judge imposed on the thief a sentence of fifteen strokes with the rod.
- It's my belief that the thief is somebody known to us.
Synonyms of thief
12 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of thief
| plural | thieves |
|---|---|
| alternative form | theef |
Origin of thief
From Middle English thef, theef, þef, from Old English þēof, from Proto-West Germanic *þeub, from Proto-Germanic *þeubaz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tjoof (“thief”), West Frisian tsjeaf (“thief”), Dutch dief (“thief”), Low German Deef, Deev (“thief”), German Dieb (“thief”), Danish tyv (“thief”), Swedish tjuv (“thief”), Icelandic þjófur (“thief”).
Words formed from thief
- a fair booty makes many a thief
- comparison is the thief of joy
- cricket thief spider
- cyberthief
- horse thief
- horsethief
- joke thief
- joule thief
- liquor thief
- opportunity makes a thief
- opportunity makes the thief
- outfangthief
- oxygen thief
- palm thief
- panel thief
- police and thief
- procrastination is the thief of time
- sampling thief
- set a thief to catch a thief
- sneak thief
- spellthief
- stop thief
- thick as thieves
- thief ant
- thiefcraft
- thiefdom
- thiefess
- thiefhood
- thief in law
- thief in the night
- thief knot
- thiefless
- thieflike
- thiefly
- thiefness
- thief palm
- thiefproof
- thiefship
- thief-taker
- thief tube
- thiefwise
- thiefy
- thievish
- time thief
- Unithieves
- wage thief
- water-thief
- wheat thief
- wine thief
Phrases with thief
Words that rhyme with thief
Questions about thief
- What does thief mean?
- Thief means one who carries out a theft.
- What is thief in Hindi?
- Thief in Hindi is चोर (cor), दुज़्द (duzd), दुज्द (dujd). See Thief meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is thief?
- Thief is a noun.
- How do you pronounce thief?
- Thief is pronounced /ˈθiːf/.
- What is the plural of thief?
- The plural of thief is thieves.
Words near thief in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thief (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-thief.ogg.
Cite this entry: “thief.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thief. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.