filch

play

verb \ˈfilch\

Definition of filch

transitive verb
: to steal secretly or casually filch a cookie

See filch defined for English-language learners

See filch defined for kids

filch was our Word of the Day on 02/11/2014. Hear the podcast!

Examples of filch in a Sentence

He filched a pack of gum when no one was looking.
too hungry to wait until the party had started, he filched a cookie from the buffet table when no one was looking

Recent Examples of filch from the Web

A rose — the Good Egg award — to Luke Riley, the flea-market art lover who bought a 13-inch-tall bronze statuette of Humpty Dumpty at Kobey’s Swap Meet and later realized it had been filched from the Del Mar county fair.

— logan jenkins, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Sheriff shops in slow motion for body cameras," 15 July 2017
Femme fatales have also been known to filch other fireflies that have become trapped in spider webs.

— jason bittel, Smithsonian, "Illuminating the Secret Language of Lightning Bugs," 4 July 2017
Cruise’s Nick Morton and his Army buddy, Chris (Jake Johnson), using a map filched from English archeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), discover an Egyptian coffin, far from its Mesopotamian origins, buried in a pool of mercury.

— peter rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, "'The Mummy' is a tentpole production with nothing under the tent," 9 June 2017
The most damaging breach was at the NSA, where Martin allegedly had filched virtually the entire library of hacking tools.

— ellen nakashima, The Denver Post, "NSA feared its hacking tool would get loose — then it did," 17 May 2017
That's increasing the incentive for thieves from California to New York who already were able to make good money selling filched oil.

— mario parker and leslie patton, chicagotribune.com, "Thieves are stealing used grease from restaurants: 'It's like crack money'," 8 May 2017
That’s increasing the incentive for thieves from California to New York who already were able to make good money selling filched oil. ‘

— mario parker, Bloomberg.com, "Crooks Are After the Grease From Your French Fries," 3 May 2017
The hackers also filched the firm’s source code and proprietary technology to manage users’ accounts and password changes.

— the washington post, Twin Cities, "Hackers, Russian spies indicted in Yahoo heist," 15 Mar. 2017
Michael Vatis of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday the FBI thought computer hackers located in Russia had filched sensitive information from US military networks.

— reuters, WIRED, "Russia Spies? ‘We Know Nothing’," 7 Oct. 1999

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'filch.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box: his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful singer-he kept not time. So says Falstaff in Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor. The Bard was fond of filch in both its literal and figurative uses; Iago says to Othello, "he that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed." Filch derives from the Middle English word filchen ("to attack" or "to steal") and perhaps from Old English gefylce ("band of men, troop, army"). As a noun, filch once referred to a hooked staff used by thieves to snatch articles out of windows and from similar places, but this use is now obsolete.

Origin and Etymology of filch

Middle English

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1561

See Words from the same year

Synonym Discussion of filch

steal, pilfer, filch, purloin mean to take from another without right or without detection. steal may apply to any surreptitious taking of something and differs from the other terms by commonly applying to intangibles as well as material things. steal jewels stole a look at the gifts pilfer implies stealing repeatedly in small amounts. pilfered from his employer filch adds a suggestion of snatching quickly and surreptitiously. filched an apple from the tray purloin stresses removing or carrying off for one's own use or purposes. printed a purloined document