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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pilfer.

To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practise petty theft.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈpɪl.fə/UK/ˈpɪl.fɚ/US
  1. To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practise petty theft.

    ambitransitive
    pilfer goods
    pilfer from a store
Where this word comes from

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

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.