# thief

Pronunciation: say "THEEF" US /θif/, UK /θiːf/

## Noun

1. A person who steals another's property, especially quietly and without using force or violence.
   - Simple: A person who secretly takes things that belong to someone else, without using force.
   - _The thief picked the lock and made off with the silverware before dawn._
   - _Several thieves had been emptying lockers at the gym for weeks._
2. A person who commits theft, taking what belongs to another.
   - Simple: A person who steals something that belongs to someone else.
   - _The jury found the thief guilty on all counts._
   - _Thieves stripped the abandoned building of its copper wiring._

## Noun

3. A flaw in a candle's wick that causes the flame to gutter and waste the wax or tallow. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A fault in a candle's wick that makes it burn badly and waste the wax.
   - _A thief in the wick guttered the flame and sent tallow streaming down the candle's side._
   - _By midnight a thief had wasted most of the candle, leaving only a puddle of fat._

## Origin

From Middle English thef (also theef, þef), from Old English þēof, from Proto-West Germanic *þeub, from Proto-Germanic *þeubaz.

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