purloin

That's why he has to purloin someone else's work in order to finish off his novel.

From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2023

The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was purloin.

From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2022

It is the first to show some T cells purloin a protein called CD20 from the surface of B cells, he adds.

From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2022

A series of turns leads Bunton, during an ill-conceived trip to London to make his case against the BBC license fee to Parliament and the media, to purloin the Wellington portrait from the National Gallery.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2021

He hesitated, then stomped back the way he’d come, stopping to purloin a clean shirt from another cabin.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

With a fee that she purloins from a church collection plate, she implores him for help and he agrees, as he learns more about this young girl’s challenging childhood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025

He survives, and in the chaos purloins a painting that his mother loved and with which he becomes obsessed.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 5, 2019

Desperate to buy her father out of debtor’s prison, she purloins a copy of his thesis and sets out to win the Great God Contest herself.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2015

The best exemplar of the species is probably E. W. Hornung’s Raffles, who was educated at the best schools, plays cricket for England, moves among the upper classes and discreetly purloins their jewels.

From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2012

She plunders sighs from humankind, She pilfers tears I would not weep, She robs me of my peace of mind, And she purloins my sleep.

From Poems by Arthur Macy

Evolution has similarly purloined existing features and modified them, using great thrift, for example, to transmogrify a piece of jaw into an ear or to transform a leg into a wing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025

Four middle-aged suspects were arrested in Southern California this week when officers found them in possession of roughly $300,000 worth of purloined Lego sets, according to the California Highway Patrol.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2024

Not long afterward, another male red fox entered the scene of the crime; the purloined repast had been his.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

Prices for standard bonds, for example, fall to compensate for the fact that inflation has purloined part of their original yields.

From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2022

But while the purloined guitar presented no ownership problem, his remaining property did.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

With regard to a Hemingway purloining on “Love and Theft”: “Dylan implants only part of the original sentence, while presumably expecting us to cough up the whole.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026

A simple but effective way to stop auto bandits from purloining your key fob signal is to use a Faraday bag or pouch.

From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024

At one British university, students were purloining towels from their dispensers, so Sofidel provided dispensers with locks.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 25, 2019

One of the rare politicians who paid a price for purloining was Joe Biden, whom I profiled in the magazine last week.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 29, 2014

“Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

From The Gospel Day Or, the Light of Christianity by Charles Ebert Orr