pilfering 1 of 2

noun

as in pilferage

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pilfering

2 of 2

verb

present participle of pilfer
as in stealing
to take (something) without right and with an intent to keep what sort of person would pilfer lunches from the office refrigerator?

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pilfering
Noun
In the second novel of the Amina al-Sirafi fantasy series, Chakraborty sets her pirate protagonist out onto the high seas for some perilous pilfering after being dragged into her partner’s problems. — Erik Pedersen, Oc Register, 8 May 2026
Verb
A little pantry pilfering is your right as a member of the household. — John Hodgman, New York Times, 8 May 2026 Prosecutors said Pildes defrauded attendees and small business owners alike, pilfering funds to pay for extensive renovations on a lakefront property in New Jersey, concert tickets, luxury getaways, Michelin star meals and a sports car. — Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 15 Apr. 2026 Season 5, meanwhile, has noticeably flattened its ensemble, leaning on simplistic personality traits and pilfering from previous arcs. — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 26 Dec. 2025 Earlier this week the company filed a lawsuit against a group of data-scraping companies for allegedly pilfering its content and selling it to Perplexity. — Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 24 Oct. 2025 And not the two sets of federal indictments against him for pilfering classified documents and then refusing to return them and for defrauding the United States. — Jeff Robbins, Oc Register, 20 Oct. 2025 Seven people are locked up for running a theft ring that included pilfering more than $800,000 in smoke detectors from Home Depot stores across Florida — including Miami-Dade, according to Attorney General James Uthmeier. — Milena Malaver, Miami Herald, 2 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pilfering
  1. shoplifting
  2. stealing
  3. embezzlement
  4. kidnapping
  5. hijacking
  6. plundering
  7. misappropriation
Noun
  • State authorities have said that police were responding to a shoplifting call at a Walmart when an officer fired at the car Kohen was in.
    — Bracey Harris, NBC news, 1 July 2026
  • The shooting occurred on June 14, after law enforcement officers responded to a shoplifting call in Senatobia, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
    — Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 22 June 2026
Definition of shoplifting
Verb
  • Those charges stem from Vick allegedly breaking into a former girlfriend’s home, and he is accused of stealing multiple electronic devices, as well as unscrewing the camera that had been located on the porch of her home.
    — Ben Wheeler, Kansas City Star, 13 July 2026
  • Do resigned and admitted to stealing millions in discretionary funds meant to help seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic, instead directing the money to a nonprofit connected to him, according to an LAist report.
    — Kyle Martin, Mercury News, 13 July 2026
Definition of stealing
Noun
  • Le Pen was sentenced in March 2025 to four years in prison, with two suspended, and a five-year ban on running for office, over her National Rally party’s alleged embezzlement of European Union funds.
    — Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 8 July 2026
  • Turner was charged with three felony counts of embezzlement of more than $100,000 from L-Town Charities, based out of Denver, North Carolina.
    — Mark Price July 8, Charlotte Observer, 8 July 2026
Definition of embezzlement
Noun
  • They were filled with protesters — including outraged members of a teachers’ union and relatives of kidnapping victims — as well as fans skeptical of a team that, four years earlier, posted its worst World Cup performance since 1978.
    — Eduard Cauich, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2026
  • Razia showed up at the scene not to aid in a kidnapping, but to confront her online tormentor, Sacks maintained.
    — John Annese, New York Daily News, 4 July 2026
Definition of kidnapping
Noun
  • The prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, however, knew that negotiating with terrorists would encourage the next hijacking.
    — Anne Neuberger, The Atlantic, 3 July 2026
  • The vulnerabilities address issues such as apps causing system termination, malicious web content leading to crashes or other issues such as memory corruption or hijacking of clipboard data.
    — David Phelan, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of hijacking
Noun
  • Some have traveled farther as part of colonial-era collections — as far as the British Museum — and been returned; a story unto itself about the plundering of the natural world in the age of empire, and institutions reckoning with their inheritance.
    — Tom Page, CNN Money, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Living through the aftermath of Rome’s plundering in 410 by the Visigoths, Augustine keenly appreciated the fact that empires come and go.
    — Brett Whalen, The Conversation, 11 Mar. 2026
Definition of plundering
Noun
  • Orientalism, the show suggests, wasn’t a one-way street but a traffic in misappropriation.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 13 July 2026
  • Apple on Friday sued OpenAI and two former employees, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets to benefit the ChatGPT-owner's foray into consumer hardware, a dramatic escalation of already simmering tension between the two companies.
    — Stephen Nellis, USA Today, 11 July 2026
Definition of misappropriation

Browse Nearby Words

pilferers
pilfering
pilfers
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Cite this Entry

“Pilfering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pilfering. Accessed 15 Jul. 2026.

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