filch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: fĭlch
ipa: /fɪlt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪltʃ
Forms: form: filches
form: filching
form: filched
form: filched
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: Hey, someone filched my wallet!
text: You would foiſt in non cauſam pro cauſa ["I do not bring into question"], have it thought your flight from your olde companions, obſcuritie and ſilence, was onely, with Æneas, to carry your father on your backe through the fire of ſlaunder, and by that shift, with the false plea of patience, unjuſtly driven from his kingdome, filch a way the harts of the Queenes liege people!
ref: 1592, Tho[mas] Nashe, “The Arrainment and Execution of the Third Letter”, in Strange Newes, of the Intercepting Certaine Letters and a Convoy of Verses, […], London: […] Iohn Danter, […], →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Illustrations of Early English Literature (Miscellaneous Tracts; Temp. Eliz. and Jac. I), volume II, London: Privately printed, [1867], →OCLC, page 46:
text: This man hath bevvitcht the boſome of my childe, / Thou, thou Lyſander, thou haſt giuen her rimes, / And interchang'd loue tokens vvith my childe: / […] / VVith cunning haſt thou filcht my daughters heart, / Turnd her obedience (vvhich is due to mee) / To ſtubborne harſhneſſe.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: But he that filches from me my good name, / Robs me of that, vvhich not inriches him, / And makes me poore indeed.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 46:
text: He [Wolfe] therefore hoped, that every county in the kingdom would, […] meet, and conſult, and expreſt their moſt ſtrenuous diſlike and abhorrence of this ſcheme of deceit, to filch from them their liberties and commerce.
ref: 1785 September 6, John Wolfe, The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, the Second Session of the Fourth Parliament in the Reign of His Present Majesty; which Met at Dublin on the 20th of January, and Ended the 7th of September, 1785, volume V, Dublin: […] P[atrick] Byrne, […], and W[illiam] Porter, […], →OCLC, page 501:
text: You think he could barter and cheat / As vulgar diplomates use, / With the people’s heart in his breast? / […] / And filch the dogman's meat / To feed the offspring of God?
ref: 1860, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Napoleon III in Italy”, in Poems before Congress, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza XV, page 16:
text: His very cocksureness is filched from [Charles] Darwin's morality of strength based on the survival of the fittest.
ref: 1916 April, Jack London, chapter XXIX, in The Little Lady of the Big House, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 342:
text: Few traces remain in this district of the great wall [Hadrian's Wall], except the unmistakable masonry blocks filched, and used for the construction of later buildings.
ref: 1955 February, M. F. Barbey, “From Carlisle to Silloth”, in Railway Magazine, page 94:
text: The film [The Kleptomaniac (1905)] begins when a prosperous matron leaves her home to go on a shopping trip to a large department store where she filches several items before she is apprehended by the store detective and escorted to the police station to stand trial before a judge.
ref: 2010, Steve Zimmerman, “Hunger”, in Food in the Movies, 2nd edition, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 131:
text: The farm drivers were often found to be filching from the cars for spare parts or moonlighting with trucks for personal gain.
ref: 2015, Cynthia J. Buckley, “Back to the Collective: Production and Consumption on a Siberian Collective Farm”, in Stephen Kotkin, David Wolff, editors, Rediscovering Russia in Asia: Siberia and the Russian Far East, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 230:
synonyms: word: flog
word: half-inch
word: jack
word: knock off
word: lift
word: nick
word: pilfer
word: pinch
word: pocket
word: rob
word: steal
word: thieve
word: steal
word: abduct
word: abstract
word: appropriate
word: bag
word: bandit
word: bash and grab
word: bone
word: boost
word: burgle
word: burglarize
word: borrow
word: cheat
word: chore
word: commandeer
word: confiscate
word: convert
word: cop
word: cozen
word: crib
word: embezzle
word: filch
word: fleece
word: flog
word: gaffle
word: gilravage
word: half-inch
word: heave
word: heist
word: jack
word: kidnap
word: knock off
word: kipe
word: kyper
word: liberate
word: lift
word: loot
word: make off with
word: mill
word: misappropriate
word: mooch
word: moonlight requisition
word: nick
word: nip
word: own
word: peculate
word: pickpocket
word: pilfer
word: pinch
word: pillage
word: pirate
word: plunder
word: poach
word: pocket
word: prig
word: purloin
word: raid
word: relieve
word: rape
word: ransack
word: reave
word: rip
word: rip off
word: rob
word: run off with
word: snag
word: snatch
word: sniggle
word: snitch
word: swindle
word: swipe
word: thieve
word: walk off with
glosses: To illegally take possession of (something, especially items of low value); to pilfer, to steal.
Derived terms: word: filched
word: filcher
word: filchery
word: filchingly
word: filching
word: unfilched