filch
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: fĭlch
ipa: /fɪlt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪltʃ
Forms: form: filches
Etymology: From Middle English filchen (“to pilfer, steal”). The further origin of the word is uncertain, but it is likely from or related to Old English fylċian (“to marshal troops”) and Old English ġefylċe (“band of men, army, host”), which would make it also related to folk.
Senses: examples: text: 'New Sabbath' is partially a filch from [George Frideric] Handel's beautiful but voluptuous song in Hercules, 'There the brisk sparkling nectar drains.'
ref: 1876 May 6, “Kingston”, quoting the Surrey Advertiser, “[Queries:] Profane Hymn Tunes”, in [John] Doran, editor, Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc. (5th series), volume V, number 123, London: Published at the office, 20, Wellington Street, Strand, W.C. by John Francis, →OCLC, page 368, column 1:
glosses: Something which has been filched or stolen.
examples: text: By the appropriation clause, which is here referred to, it was proposed to apply a part of the property of the Irish Church to secular purposes, that is, to work a transfer of property, with an alteration of its uses. Call this as you will, a spoliation, or wise application, it implies a loss to one and a gain to other, of the same property. In the evil sense, it means spoliation, or wrongful deprival, appropriation, or "conveyance" in the sense of a filch.
ref: 1860, Lawrence Peel, “To John B[acon] S[awrey] Morritt, Esq., Portland Place, London [letter from Sir Walter Scott]”, in A Sketch of the Life and Character of Sir Robert Peel, London: Longman, Green, Longma, and Roberts, →OCLC, page 173:
glosses: An act of filching; larceny, theft.
examples: text: A ſimple lad, with a whip in one hand, and the other locked in the arm of a young girl, is ſo loſt in gaping aſtoniſhment, that an adroit branch of the family of the Filches is clearing his pockets of their contents.
ref: 1803, William Hogarth; Thomas Cook, engraver, “Southwark Fair”, in Anecdotes of Mr. Hogarth, and Explanatory Descriptions of the Plates of Hogarth Restored. Engraved by Thomas Cook, London: Printed for the engraver, no. 38, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden; and G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 2:
glosses: A person who filches; a filcher, a pilferer, a thief.
examples: text: Thus much for their fraternities, names, lodgings, and assemblies, at all which times everyone of them carries a short staff in his hand, which is called a filch, having in the nab, or head, of it, a ferme (that is to say, a hole) into which, upon any piece of service, when he goes a filching, he putteth a hook of iron, with which hook he angles at a window in the dead of night, for shirts, smocks, or any other linen or woollen. And for that reason is the staff called a filch.
ref: 1930, Thomas Dekker [?], “O Per Se O (1612)”, in A[rthur] V[alentine] Judges, editor, The Elizabethan Underworld: A Collection of Tudor and Early Stuart Tracts and Ballads Telling of the Lives and Misdoings of Vagabonds, Thieves and Cozeners, and Giving Some Account of the Operation of the Criminal Law, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, →OCLC, page 380; reprinted as The Elizabethan Underworld: A Collection of Tudor and Early Stuart Tracts and Ballads (Key Writings on Subcultures, 1535–1727: Classics from the Underworld; I), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2002, →ISBN, page 380:
glosses: A hooked stick used to filch objects.
Synonyms: sense: act of filching
word: larceny
sense: act of filching
word: theft
sense: person who filches
word: filcher
sense: person who filches
word: pilferer
sense: person who filches
word: thief