thief

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English

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Etymology

From Middle English thef, theef, þef, from Old English þēof, from Proto-West Germanic *þeub, from Proto-Germanic *þeubaz. Spelling from Northern England, where /eːo/ became rather than . (Compare the spelling of deep from Old English deop.)

Pronunciation

Noun

thief (plural thieves)

  1. One who carries out a theft.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:thief
  2. One who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.
    • 1580, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: , London: Henrie Denham  , →OCLC; republished as W Payne and Sidney J Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. , London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., , 1878, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 166:
      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.
  3. (obsolete) A waster in the snuff of a candle.
    • 1640, Joseph Hall, Divine Light:
      But hear you, my Worthy Brethren: do not you, where you see a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher […]

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