thief

/θif/

/θif/

Other forms: thieves

A thief is someone who steals something. A thief can be anything from a cyberspace criminal mastermind who steals credit card information around the world, to the petty thief who picks people's pockets on the subway.

Some famous thieves (notice the -v- in the plural) include outlaws of the Old West, like Butch Cassidy and Jesse James, and those notorious bank robbers of the 1930s with the memorable names — "Baby Face" Nelson, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, "Machine Gun" Kelly, to name a few. They were so bold (and so brutal) that their activities became a major impetus for the beefing up of the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover.

Definitions of thief

1. noun

   a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it
   synonyms: stealer

   types:

   bandit, brigand

   an armed thief who is (usually) a member of a band

   booster, lifter, shoplifter

   a thief who steals goods that are in a store

   burglar

   a thief who enters a building with intent to steal

   dacoit, dakoit

   a member of an armed gang of robbers

   defalcator, embezzler, peculator

   someone who violates a trust by taking (money) for his own use

   body snatcher, ghoul, graverobber

   someone who takes bodies from graves and sells them for anatomical dissection

   graverobber

   someone who steals valuables from graves or crypts

   holdup man, stickup man

   an armed thief

   larcener, larcenist

   a person who commits larceny

   cutpurse, dip, pickpocket

   a thief who steals from the pockets or purses of others in public places

   literary pirate, pirate, plagiariser, plagiarist, plagiarizer

   someone who uses another person's words or ideas as if they were his own

   despoiler, freebooter, looter, pillager, plunderer, raider, spoiler

   someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)

   robber

   a thief who steals from someone by threatening violence

   cattle thief, rustler

   someone who steals livestock (especially cattle)

   cracksman, safebreaker, safecracker

   a thief who breaks open safes to steal valuable contents

   snatcher

   a thief who grabs and runs

   pilferer, sneak thief, snitcher

   a thief who steals without using violence

   bank robber

   a robber of banks

   highjacker, highwayman, hijacker, road agent

   a holdup man who stops a vehicle and steals from it

   cat burglar, housebreaker

   a burglar who unlawfully breaks into and enters another person's house

   mugger

   a robber who takes property by threatening or performing violence on the person who is robbed (usually on the street)

   buccaneer, pirate, sea robber, sea rover

   someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation

   wharf rat

   someone who lives near wharves and lives by pilfering from ships or warehouses

   type of:

   criminal, crook, felon, malefactor, outlaw

   someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime