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To take away by violence or by stealth; to snatch away; to rob; to despoil; to bereave. [Archaic]. "To reave his life." Spenser. He golden apples raft of the dragon. Chaucer. By privy stratagem my life at home. Chapman. To reave the orphan of his patrimony. Shak. The heaven caught and reft him of his tongue. Tennyson.…

One who steals bodies from the grave, as for dissection. [Slang]

To make free with; hence, to steal; to pilfer. [Obs. or Prov.] Tusser. To rig the market (Stock Exchange), to raise or lower market prices, as by some fraud or trick. [Cant]

To take (something) away from by force; to strip by stealing; to plunder; to pillage; to steal from. Who would rob a hermit of his weeds, His few books, or his beads, or maple dish Milton. He that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen, Let him not know it, and he's not robbed at all. Shak. To be executed for robbing a…

e act or practice of robbing; theft. Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves. Shak.

To steal off; to depart secretly. My conscience will serve me to run from this jew. Shak.

An auxiliary watch chain, secured to the clothes, usually out of sight, to prevent stealing of the watch.

One who steals anything in a shop, or takes goods privately from a shop; one who, under pretense of buying goods, takes occasion to steal.

Larceny committed in a shop; the stealing of anything from a shop.

To creep away meanly; to steal away; to sneak. "To slink away and hide." Tale of Beryn. Back to the thicket slunk The guilty serpent. Milton. There were some few who slank obliquely from them as they passed. Landor.

To creep or steal (away or about) privately; to come or go meanly, as a person afraid or ashamed to be seen; as, to sneak away from company. imp. & p. p. "snuck" is more common now, but not even mentioned here. In MW10, simply "sneaked or snuck" You skulked behind the fence, and sneaked away. Dryden.…

h greyhounds in a leash ready to slip; -- one of the four presumptions that a man intends stealing the king's deer. Wharton.

The stock or handle of anything; as, the stale of a rake. [Written also steal, stele, etc.] But seeling the arrow's stale without, and that the head did go No further than it might be seen. Chapman.

To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner; -- sometimes used with a reflexive pronoun. Shak. Into the chamber he stalked him full still. Chaucer. [Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, Pressing to be employed. Dryden.

Same as Stealer.

imp. of Steal.

p. p. of Steal.

To steal money. [Old Slang, Eng.] Nares. To strike at, to aim a blow at. -- To strike for, to start suddenly on a course for. -- To strike home, to give a blow which reaches its object, to strike with effect. -- To strike in. (a) To enter suddenly. (b) To disappear from the surface, with internal effects, as an erup…

The act or process of getting in a surreptitious manner, or by craft or stealth. Fame by surreption got May stead us for the time, but lasteth not. B. Jonson.

Done or made by stealth, or without proper authority; made or introduced fraudulently; clandestine; stealthy; as, a surreptitious passage in an old manuscript; a surreptitious removal of goods. -- Sur`rep*ti"tious*ly, adv.