steal.
To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
Meaning & usage
To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
Three irreplaceable paintings were stolen from the gallery.
The problem is the two bicycles stolen from us.
To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement.
They stole my idea for a biodegradable, disposable garbage de-odorizer.
To get or effect surreptitiously or artfully.
He stole glances at the pretty woman across the street.
To acquire at a low price.
He stole the car for two thousand less than its book value.
He got that car for two grand under book? Wow, he stole that thing!
To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show.
To move silently or secretly; to pass unnoticed.
He stole across the room, trying not to wake her.
Dawn was stealing over the mountaintops.
To convey (something) clandestinely.
To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely.
To advance safely to (another base) during the delivery of a pitch, without the aid of a hit, walk, passed ball, wild pitch, or defensive indifference.
To dispossess.
To borrow for a short moment.
Can I steal your pen?
To take or retell someone else’s joke; to use a clever phrase or expression from someone else in one's own speaking or writing.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *stelaną Proto-West Germanic *stelan Old English stelan Middle English stelen English steal Inherited from Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan, from Proto-West Germanic *stelan, from Proto-Germanic *stelaną. Cognate with Bavarian stöhn (“to steal”), Dutch stelen (“to steal”), German and Low German stehlen (“to steal”), Luxembourgish stielen (“to steal”), Danish stjæle (“to steal”), Faroese stjala (“to steal”), Icelandic stela (“to steal”), Norwegian Bokmål stjele (“to steal”), Norwegian Nynorsk stela, stele (“to steal”), Swedish stjäla (“to steal”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌽 (stilan, “to steal”). For the meaning development compare with Russian красть (krastʹ, “to steal”) and Russian кра́сться (krástʹsja, “to stalk, to prowl, to slink”). etymology notes Proposed etymologies beyond Germanic are numerous and include * Proto-Indo-European *ster-: compare Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”) * Proto-Indo-European *stel(H)- (“to stretch”): compare Albanian pë/mbështjell (“to confuse, mess up, mix, wrap up”), Old Church Slavonic стєлѭ (steljǫ, “I spread out (bed, roof)”), Ancient Greek τηλία (tēlía, “playing table”) * Proto-Indo-European *tsel- (“to sneak”): compare Sanskrit त्सरति (tsárati, “creep, sneak up on”) and other forms under Pokorny 5. *sel- "schleichen, kriechen"
The act of stealing.
A piece of merchandise available at a very low, attractive price; the act of buying it.
At this price, this car is a steal.
He got that thing for just twenty bucks? What a steal!
A situation in which a defensive player actively takes possession of the ball or puck from the opponent's team.
A stolen base.
Scoring in an end without the hammer.
A policy in database systems that a database follows which allows a transaction to be written on nonvolatile storage before its commit occurs.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *stelaną Proto-West Germanic *stelan Old English stelan Middle English stelen English steal Inherited from Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan, from Proto-West Germanic *stelan, from Proto-Germanic *stelaną. Cognate with Bavarian stöhn (“to steal”), Dutch stelen (“to steal”), German and Low German stehlen (“to steal”), Luxembourgish stielen (“to steal”), Danish stjæle (“to steal”), Faroese stjala (“to steal”), Icelandic stela (“to steal”), Norwegian Bokmål stjele (“to steal”), Norwegian Nynorsk stela, stele (“to steal”), Swedish stjäla (“to steal”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌽 (stilan, “to steal”). For the meaning development compare with Russian красть (krastʹ, “to steal”) and Russian кра́сться (krástʹsja, “to stalk, to prowl, to slink”). etymology notes Proposed etymologies beyond Germanic are numerous and include * Proto-Indo-European *ster-: compare Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”) * Proto-Indo-European *stel(H)- (“to stretch”): compare Albanian pë/mbështjell (“to confuse, mess up, mix, wrap up”), Old Church Slavonic стєлѭ (steljǫ, “I spread out (bed, roof)”), Ancient Greek τηλία (tēlía, “playing table”) * Proto-Indo-European *tsel- (“to sneak”): compare Sanskrit त्सरति (tsárati, “creep, sneak up on”) and other forms under Pokorny 5. *sel- "schleichen, kriechen"
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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.