filch

verb \ ˈfilch \

Updated on: 23 Feb 2018

Definition of filch

transitive verb

: to steal secretly or casually

filch a cookie

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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

Some of the plotting also filches from another famous genre picture.

— Philly.com, "Movies: New and Noteworthy," 19 Feb. 2018
The cause of the new public relations crisis is the disclosure last week of two new ways to filch data from the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world’s computers.

— don clark, New York Times, "Intel Faces Scrutiny as Questions Swirl Over Chip Security," 7 Jan. 2018
Such price sensitivity is reflected in what gets filched.

— The Economist, "Lucrative lootHow the economics of robbery are changing," 16 Dec. 2017
This time the 30-year-old Tremayne is on assignment for the India Office, which has replaced the East India Company, and his aim is to travel to the Peruvian highlands to filch cinchona cuttings.

— sara wheeler, New York Times, "A 19th-Century Smuggler in the Peruvian Andes," 15 Sep. 2017
Dean steals cars where the others are scarcely capable of filching a loaf of bread from an untended grocery.

— lily rothman, Time, "Read TIME's Original 1957 Review of On the Road," 5 Sep. 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," 3 July 2017
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
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

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

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First Known Use: 1561

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filch Synonyms

Phrases

make away with, make off with, run off with, walk off with;

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.