# stolen

Pronunciation: say "STOH-luhn" US /ˈstoʊ.lən/, UK /ˈstəʊ.lən/

## Verb

1. Past participle of steal. — past participle of steal
   - Simple: Past participle of steal. Use this form after have, has, had, or was to talk about taking something that isn't yours.
   - _The paintings had been stolen before the museum even opened that morning._
   - _Several confidential documents were stolen from the locked office._

## Adjective

2. Taken unlawfully from its rightful owner; acquired through theft.
   - Simple: Taken away from its owner by theft.
   - _Investigators traced the stolen artwork to a private collector overseas._
   - _He was caught trying to sell stolen phones at a street market._

## Noun

3. An object that has been taken by theft. *(dialectal, Multicultural London English, US)*
   - Simple: A thing that someone has taken by theft.
   - _He got pulled over driving a stolen with fake plates on it._
   - _The market was flooded with stolens after the warehouse robbery._

## Origin

The past participle of "steal," descending from Middle English stolen, from Old English stolen (ġestolen), from Proto-Germanic *stulanaz, the past participle of *stelaną ("to steal"). It is cognate with Dutch gestolen, German gestohlen, and Swedish stulen.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/stolen (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).