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shop stealer. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
shop stealer, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
shop stealer in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
shop stealer you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Unclear, but ultimately from shoplifter (which predates the verb shoplift). Structurally, shop steal + -er, but perhaps more likely is that both verb and agent noun forms were coined around the same time by alteration of shoplift / shoplifter to carry the nuanced greater emphasis on theft.
Pronunciation
Noun
shop stealer (plural shop stealers)
- (Australia) A shoplifter.
- If you suspect a shop stealer, pay this person a lot of attention.
- 1989, Criminologica Foundation, Criminology & Penology Abstracts, Volume 29, Issues 4-6, page 438,
- This article reports comparisons of views on shop stealers held by involved professionals .
- 2003, Geoffrey Heard, Gordon Woolf, Success in Store: How to Start Or Buy a Retail Business, Enjoy Running It, The Worsley Press, Australia, page 107,
- I am writing this the day after I sacked a customer (yes, you can sack a customer — Gordon′s example of a shop stealer is sacking a customer) who is struggling for dollars, but refused to take advice about building his business and accepted the blandishments of a Yellow Pages salesman.
2008, William Wilkie, The Home Psychiatrist, page 379:It is essential for the compulsive shop-stealer to be charged by police, for the gambler to repay his debts, the violent alcoholic to repair the damaged furniture.
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