I. steal 1 S3 W3 /stiːl/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense stole /stəʊl $ stoʊl/, past participle stolen /ˈstəʊlən $ ˈstoʊ-/)
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: stelan ]
1 . TAKE SOMETHING [intransitive and transitive] to take something that belongs to someone else:
Boys broke into a shop and stole £45 in cash.
steal from
He stole money from his parents.
steal something from somebody/something
He’d stolen the flowers from our garden.
2 . USE IDEAS [intransitive and transitive] to use someone else’s ideas without getting permission or without admitting that they are not your own ideas SYN pinch :
Inventors know that someone is always going to try to steal their designs.
steal something from somebody
A well-known scientist was accused of stealing his former student’s ideas.
3 . MOVE SOMEWHERE [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to move quietly without anyone noticing you SYN creep
steal into/across etc
He dressed quietly and stole out of the house.
4 . steal the show/limelight/scene to do something, especially when you are acting in a play, that makes people pay more attention to you than to other people:
Elwood stole the show with a marvellous performance.
5 . steal a look/glance etc to look at someone or something quickly and secretly
6 . SPORT
a) [intransitive and transitive] to run to the next ↑ base before someone hits the ball in the sport of baseball
b) [transitive] to suddenly take control of the ball, ↑ puck etc when the other team had previously had control of it, for example in ↑ basketball or ↑ ice hockey :
Roy steals the ball four times in the first half.
7 . steal a kiss to kiss someone quickly when they are not expecting it
8 . steal a march on somebody to gain an advantage over someone by doing something that they had planned to do before them:
He was afraid another scholar was going to steal a march on him and publish first.
9 . steal sb’s thunder to get the success and praise someone else should have got, by doing what they had intended to do
10 . steal sb’s heart literary to make someone fall in love with you
⇨ beg, borrow, or steal at ↑ beg (8)
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THESAURUS
▪ steal to illegally take something that belongs to someone else:
The thieves stole over £10,000 worth of computer equipment.
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Thousands of cars get stolen every year.
▪ take to steal something – used when it is clear from the situation that you mean that someone takes something dishonestly:
The boys broke into her house and took all her money.
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They didn’t take much – just a few items of jewellery.
▪ burgle British English , burglarize American English [usually passive] to go into someone’s home and steal things, especially when the owners are not there:
Their house was burgled while they were away.
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If you leave windows open, you are asking to be burgled.
▪ rob to steal money or other things from a bank, shop, or person:
The gang were convicted of robbing a bank in Essex.
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An elderly woman was robbed at gunpoint in her own home.
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He’s serving a sentence for robbing a grocery store.
▪ mug to attack someone in the street and steal something from them:
People in this area are frightened of being mugged when they go out.
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Someone tried to mug me outside the station.
▪ nick/pinch British English informal to steal something:
Someone’s nicked my wallet!
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When I came back, my car had been pinched.
▪ embezzle to steal money from the organization you work for, especially money that you are responsible for:
Government officials embezzled more than $2.5 million from the department.
▪ shoplifting stealing things from a shop by taking them when you think no one is looking:
Shoplifting costs stores millions of pounds every year.
▪ phishing the activity of dishonestly persuading people to give you their credit card details over the Internet, so that you can steal money from their bank account:
Phishing is becoming very popular with computer criminals.
II. steal 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
1 . be a steal informal to be very cheap:
an excellent seafood dish that is a steal at $8.25
2 . the act of suddenly taking control of the ball when the other team had previously had control of it, especially in ↑ basketball :
Johnson had ten points and a steal in the first half.
3 . the act of running to the next ↑ base before someone hits the ball in the sport of baseball