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Did you know?
The award-winning 2019 video game Untitled Goose Game, in which players control the titular (or “un-titular”?) waterfowl through several levels of light and family-friendly mayhem, serves as an excellent primer on the meaning of filch. In fact, many of the game’s objectives involve waddling furtively around a quaint little scene, such as a garden, and trying to avoid detection by humans while you pilfer, say, a pumpkin or a woolen hat. To filch is to steal something (usually, though not always, a small or relatively unimportant something) in secret. So why not just use steal? There’s often a distinct twang of humor or mischievousness in filch that’s not inherent in plain old steal, and that reflects a casualness or nonchalance on the part of the silly goose—whether literal or figurative—snatching the pie from the windowsill.
Synonyms
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.
pilfer implies stealing repeatedly in small amounts.
filch adds a suggestion of snatching quickly and surreptitiously.
purloin stresses removing or carrying off for one's own use or purposes.
Examples of filch in a Sentence
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'filch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Middle English
1561, in the meaning defined above
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Cite this Entry
“Filch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/filch. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
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