pilfer
/ˈpɪlfə
/verb [with object]
Steal (things of little value): she produced the handful of coins she had managed to pilfer (as noun pilfering) no system is proof against pilfering if people are determined enough
Derivatives
pilferage
/ noun ...- Employers justify surveillance practices by claiming that they ensure increased productivity, and reduce theft and pilferage in the workplace.
- This is especially true if we consider how various forms of pilferage, theft, and minor fraud relate to the way different kinds of work are organized and the occupational socialization that people experience.
- Then he discovered that some of those hires were fleecing the business - through a combination of pilferage and outright theft that added up to tens of thousands of dollars.
pilferer
/ noun ...- Masses of all kinds of pilferers and robbers with spades and shovels in their hands were there digging and searching and raking and straining the sand.
- Moving on to talk about that ex-Marine, former White House staffer, rookie FBI analyst, pilferer of classified computer files.
- Indeed, the pilferers might legitimately claim that they were recovering wealth that had previously been taken from them in the form of taxation.
Origin
Late Middle English (as a noun in the sense 'action of pilfering, something pilfered'): from Old French pelfrer 'to pillage', of unknown origin. Compare with pelf.