pilfer
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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pilfers,
present (3rd person singular)
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pilfered,
past participle, past
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pilfering
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
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
-
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:
Forcing social media platforms to pay for the news and information they pilfer and monetize seems a quite modest and reasonable step.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2026
Still, they ignited conspiracy theories that caused people to pilfer the county-issued pens — and prompted officials to switch out the brand for the general election.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 7, 2022
There's never a need to pilfer through your cabinets, to be knocked over in a cascade of plastic storage containers à la those decades old infomercials, or to haphazardly use a cumbersome espresso maker.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2022
Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the scheme to pilfer the fund, known as 1MDB, was “massive in its scale” and “brazen in its execution.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2022
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
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
Josh Intrator, 25, who does layout for a financial magazine and lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn, pilfers toilet paper from bars and restaurants.
From New York Times ● Jun. 11, 2010
It lives on toads and frogs, and robs the nests of young birds, and also pilfers the eggs.
From In the Forest Or, pictures of life and scenery in the woods of Canada by Catharine Parr Strickland Traill
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
Add in recent cemetery thefts in Nebraska, North Dakota, New Mexico, Washington: Across the nation, American graveyards are being pilfered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
One Santa Monica resident whose home was burglarized early Wednesday hoped that the presence of an Apple AirTag amid her pilfered items could help investigators track down their whereabouts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2025
I was ensconced in my covers and had just unwrapped the first Peanut Butter Cup I’d pilfered from the kitchen when I heard the doorbell ring.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
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
But Aragon is a little lock-crazy: He has screwed a tiny hasp onto his plastic lunch box and hangs a combination lock there, because of the sodas he’s lost to pilfering officers, he says.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
