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To appropriate to one's own use the property of the public; to steal public moneys intrusted to one's care; to embezzle. An oppressive, . . . rapacious, and peculating despotism. Burke.

bar of a court; -- so called in distinction from the grand jury. -- Petit larceny, the stealing of goods of, or under, a certain specified small value; -- opposed to grand larceny. The distinction is abolished in England. -- Petit maître (. Etym: [F., lit., little master.] A fop; a coxcomb; a ladies' man. Goldsmith.…

, or being a portion of a sentence; as, an adverbial phrase. "Convey" the wise it call. "Steal!" foh! a fico for the phrase. Shak.

To steal; to pilfer. "To keep my hands from picking and stealing." Book of Com. Prayer. To pick up, to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. [Colloq. U.S.]

es a pick; one who gathers; a thief; a pick; a pickax; as, a cotton picker. "Pickers and stealers." Shak.

One who steals purses or other articles from pockets. Bentley.

One who steals purses, or money from purses. Latimer. Shak.

To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practice petty theft.

om others on the open sea by open violence; without lawful authority, and with intent to steal; -- a crime answering to robbery on land.

t his business to cruise for robbery or plunder; a freebooter on the seas; also, one who steals in a harbor.

To steal or purloin from the writings of another; to appropriate without due acknowledgement (the ideas or expressions of another).

A manstealer; a kidnaper. [Obs.]

Manstealing; kidnaping.

To rob of game; to pocket and convey away by stealth, as game; hence, to plunder. Garth.

Popliteal.

The act of devouring other creatures; ravage. Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, . . . lion in prey. Shak. Beast of prey, a carnivorous animal; one that feeds on the flesh of other animals.

To filch or steal; as, to prig a handkerchief. [Cant]

Inclination; propensity; proneness; tendency. "A proclivity to steal." Abp. Bramhall.

To steal; to rob; to filch. [Low] Johnson.

rson from doing a thing, and also the doing of the thing; as, the law prohibits men from stealing, or it prohibits stealing.