1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry V f. lxvi^v The Englishmen durst not..ones deuide them selues or fal to pilfryng.

1612 R. Potts & W. Pettiplace Proc. Eng. Colony in Narratives of Early Virginia (1907) 198 This they proved by the oath of one hee had oft whipped for perjurie and pilfering.

1629 Vse of Law 21 in J. Doddridge Lawyers Light Some whose offences are pilfring vnder twelue pence value, they judge to be whipped.

1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge To Rdr. If the knack of borrowing, or robbing and pilfering rather, gets but a little further ground amongst us.

1724 ‘C. Johnson’ Gen. Hist. Pyrates vii. 128 She never had found the Maid guilty of any pilfering.

1792 T. Paine Rights of Man: Pt. Second v. 134 These circumstances, which are the general cause of the little thefts and pilferings that lead to greater, may be prevented.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. ix. 464 There had..been..much less waste and pilfering in the dockyards than formerly.

1862 M. Hopkins Hawaii 94 They made reprisals, in the way of pilfering, to recoup themselves for their forced gratuities.

a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. xxi. 382 All these pilferings had to go at once to the pawnshop.

1994 Time 15 Aug. 30/3 Police agencies are also taking steps to thwart the pilfering of cellular numbers.

1546 J. Bale First Examinacyon A. Askewe f. 30^v The popes owne wares as prowlynge and pelferynge as the pardons, with no lesse blasphemye.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V i. ii. 142 To guard your England from the pilfering borderers.

1632 G. Sandys in tr. Ovid Metamorphosis (new ed.) xiv. Notes 481 A pilfering thiefe confessed..how by the aduice of one of his recettors he compassed this hearb.

1672 J. Eachard Mr. Hobbs's State Nature Considered 107 That Humane Nature in general, is a shirking, rooking, pilfering, padding nature.

1725 D. Defoe Everybody's Business 20 Above ten thousand wicked idle pilfering vagrants.

1759 A. Smith Theory Moral Sentiments v. §ii. 389 An abject, cowardly, ill-natured, lying, pilfering disposition.

1821 J. Clare Village Minstrel I. 73 Mistaking me for pilfering boy.

1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. xiv. 130 Sneaking in and out among the shipping..in a pilfering way.

1959 W. L. McAtee Folk-names Canad. Birds (ed. 2) 50 Perhaps from its [sc. the Canada jay's] pilfering habits, there being hardly any other resemblance.

1990 Express Money 22 May 24/3 A ‘sneak's charter’ which encourages staff to squeal on their pilfering colleagues.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Subreptivement, pilferingly, by stealth, by false meanes.

1871 Zell's Pop. Cycl. I. 899 Filchingly, by petty larceny; pilferingly.

1969 C. Foust Muscovite & Mandarin iii. 97 Chinese merchants ‘pilferingly’ entering Mongolia were to be apprehended.