pilfer
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pilfersimple
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pilferssimple
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have pilferedperfect
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has pilferedperfect
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am pilferingprogressive
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are pilferingprogressive
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is pilferingprogressive
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have been pilferingperfect progressive
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has been pilferingperfect progressive
Past
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pilferedsimple
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had pilferedperfect
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was pilferingprogressive
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were pilferingprogressive
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had been pilferingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pilfer
1540–50; v. use of late Middle English pilfre booty < Middle French pelfre. See pelf
Explanation
To pilfer is to steal something, typically of small value. Minor thefts, like taking a roll of toilet paper out of a public bathroom or napkins from the Early Bird Buffet are what your grandfather, for example, might pilfer. The verb pilfer comes from the Old French noun pelfre, meaning “booty,” or “spoils.” Now pilfer is used when talking about the act of stealing loot: you may find that you have to really restrain yourself from the desire to pilfer your friend’s new fur-lined gloves, even though you're pretty sure she pilfered your headphones. Robin Hood was able to pilfer from the rich to give to the poor.
Vocabulary lists containing pilfer
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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This Week in Pop Culture: August 10–16, 2019
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A Long Way from Chicago
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But when Uncle Murray refuses to pay up, and Marty has to pilfer the money for his trip, the road to global eminence takes some sharp turns.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2025
There, detectives watched a four-person crew suspected in the thefts pilfer more Scratchers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2024
The reason is that if hackers pilfer your password from one service, they can try it on your other accounts and easily get into all of them.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 17, 2024
A tuba is also much harder for a thief to pilfer than, say, a piccolo, or even a trumpet.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2024
I head toward the kitchen to see what I can pilfer before dinner.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Website publishers, particularly media outlets, say that AI pilfers their content without compensation to feed its models.
From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026
Locals in the town of Munnar, near Padayappa's habitat, call him a "gentle giant" who has never hurt anyone, even though he occasionally pilfers food from their homes and farms at night.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2023
Hsiao-kang, the son of a taxi driver, swats cockroaches instead of doing his math homework; Ah-tze, a small-time thief, pilfers coins out of phone booths.
From New York Times ● Sep. 21, 2020
And here’s the worst part: If a company ultimately pilfers inventions or trade secrets or anything else from users, it will already be too late.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2012
But when one "cookee," or common man, pilfers from another, it is quite another matter.
From John Rutherford, the White Chief by Craik, George Lillie
Historically, authorities have clawed back pilfered funds about 75% of the time when scams were reported within 72 hours, said the FBI’s Lynch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Setup: After Woody gets pilfered by a toy dealer, he discovers he’s part of a rare vintage set that includes Jessie and a horse named Bullseye.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
After 56 minutes the Murrayfield crowd, still euphoric after Huw Jones' second try, were halfway through a rendition of Flower of Scotland, when Rory Darge pilfered a turnover inside his own 22m.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
The heavy and double-walled steel structure of the machine is also less likely to be pilfered from than stores with ammunition sitting on an open shelf.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2024
Tattlers pilfered from the mail chest created secret mountains beneath my bed, and Belle-cards slipped from Du Barry's office decorated the ivory screen separating my side of the room from Maman's.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
What’s more, China has a history of pilfering technology to get ahead: In 2025, one in five European companies in China said that Chinese firms had stolen technology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Yes, using the DOJ’s website, users are pilfering software and documents from the Epstein files.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2026
He probably feels more awful about his after-hours pilfering than you do.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 24, 2025
Slowly, painfully, he realizes they are miserable not because of one another but because they are poor, a hardship he has been quietly worsening by pilfering their stores.
From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2025
Between meals, if his mother did not stand guard, he was constantly pilfering at the wretched store of food on the shelf.
From "1984" by George Orwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
