Other Word Forms
- larcenously adverb
- nonlarcenous adjective
- unlarcenous adjective
- unlarcenously adverb
Etymology
Origin of larcenous
Explanation
Someone who's larcenous has a tendency to steal things. You can describe a classmate as larcenous if she proudly shows off the candy she's stolen from the corner store. Pickpockets, car thieves, and politicians who accept bribes are all larcenous — they are all motivated by a desire for financial gain and a willingness to take things that don't belong to them. This adjective comes from larceny, a fancy way to say "theft." Both words have their roots in the Latin latrocinium, "robbery," which comes from latro, "robber or bandit."
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.
Coop’s larcenous ways awaken something in him that the straight-laced corporate life had repressed.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 12, 2026
Above and beyond is Bonnie Milligan, portraying Pattie’s larcenous sister Debra, a woman of no known address but who might be elected president if she could redirect that cyclonic energy away from antisocial impulses.
From Washington Post • Nov. 10, 2022
‘Time Bandits’ A British lad joins six larcenous little people on the adventure of a lifetime in Monty Python mainstay Terry Gilliam’s 1981 fantasy comedy.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 16, 2022
Mr. Wolf, the lupine leader of the larcenous critters at the center of the delightful animated comedy “The Bad Guys,” knows whereof he speaks.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 21, 2022
One thing saved him: the company—and larcenous advice—of the city’s homeless, many of them teenagers.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
