Noun: thief
| Singular | thief |
| Plural | thieves |
Sample Sentences
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water-thieves and land-thieves [c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:]
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Take heed to false harlots, and more, ye wot what. / If noise ye heare, / Looke all be cleare: / Least drabs doe noie thee, / And theeues destroie thee. [1878, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 166:]
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But hear you, my Worthy Brethren: do not you, where you see a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher[…] [1640, Joseph Hall, Divine Light:]
Nouns inflected like thief
machine elf,
foliage leaf,
copresheaf,
B-sheaf,
beewolf,
grey wolf,
technoself,
Abyssinian wolf,
Iberian wolf,
pan-loaf,
mer-wolf,
subsheaf,
woodelf,
farmhouse loaf,
strandwolf,
eigensheaf,
nut loaf,
antiself,
spellthief,
French loaf, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English thef, theef, þef, from Old English þēof, from Proto-West Germanic *þeub, from Proto-Germanic *þeubaz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tjoof (“thief”), West Frisian tsjeaf (“thief”), Dutch dief (“thief”), Low German Deef, Deev (“thief”), German Dieb (“thief”), Danish tyv (“thief”), Swedish tjuv (“thief”), Icelandic þjófur (“thief”). See: Middle English Nouns '
thef', Dutch Nouns '
dief', German Nouns '
Dieb', Danish Nouns '
tyv', Swedish Nouns '
tjuv', Icelandic Nouns '
þjófur'.
Verbs referencing "thief"
German Nouns
Dieb.