Purloin

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal. formal, humorous, transitive, usually

    "Had from his wakeful custody purloined / The guarded gold."

  2. 2
    make off with belongings of others wordnet
  3. 3
    To commit theft; to thieve. intransitive

    "The Apostle expressly forbiddeth servants to purloin (Titus 2:10)."

Synonyms

All synonyms
pilferabstractabstractandannexappropriate

Example

More examples

"This boy tried to purloin my wallet on the streetcar."

Etymology

From Middle English purloynen (“to remove”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman purloigner (“to put far away”), one of the variants of Old French porloignier. Doublet of prolong.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.