From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Theft \Theft\, noun [OE. thefte, AS. [thorn]i['e]f[eth]e, [thorn][=y]f[eth]e, [thorn]e['o]f[eth]e. See {Thief}.]
1. (Law) The act of stealing; specifically, the felonious taking and removing of personal property, with an intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same; larceny.
Note: To constitute theft there must be a taking without the owner's consent, and it must be unlawful or felonious; every part of the property stolen must be removed, however slightly, from its former position; and it must be, at least momentarily, in the complete possession of the thief. See {Larceny}, and the Note under {Robbery}.
If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, . . . he shall restore double. --Ex. xxii. 4.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: the act of taking something from someone unlawfully; "the thieving is awful at Kennedy International" [syn: {larceny}, {thievery}, {thieving}, {stealing}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
39 Moby Thesaurus words for "theft": acquisition, appropriation, boosting, burglary, caper, claiming, embezzlement, filch, filching, grab, heist, hijacking, job, larceny, lift, lifting, pilferage, pilfering, pinch, pinching, possession, purloining, reception, rip-off, robbery, robbing, score, shoplifting, snitching, steal, stealage, stealing, swiping, taking, taking away, taking possession, thievery, thieving, touch
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Theft Punished by restitution, the proportions of which are noted in 2 Sam. 12:6. If the thief could not pay the fine, he was to be sold to a Hebrew master till he could pay (Ex. 22:1-4). A night-thief might be smitten till he died, and there would be no blood-guiltiness for him (22:2). A man-stealer was to be put to death (21:16). All theft is forbidden (Ex. 20:15; 21:16; Lev. 19:11; Deut. 5:19; 24:7; Ps. 50:18; Zech. 5:3; Matt. 19:18; Rom. 13:9; Eph. 4:28; 1 Pet. 4:15).
Define.com is a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated solely to the global public interest and the advancement of humanity. It belongs to all of us who have a desire to promote electronic democracy, science, creativity, imagination, reason, critical thinking, peace, race and gender equality, civil rights, equal access to education, personal liberty, free speech, animal rights, compassionate and nonviolent parenting, social and economic justice, global monetary reform, Secular Humanism, cognitive liberty and a permanent cessation of The War on Drugs.
Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
0