Thieved

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Took something that did not belong to oneself without permission
2. Illegally took possession of someone else's property or belongings
3. Seized or carried away goods dishonestly and without consent

Etymology: "Thieved" is the past tense and past participle of "thieve," a verb that comes down from Old English "þēofian" and its variant forms, all meaning to steal. The root is the same ancestry that gave English "thief" itself, so the verb and the noun share a long line of descent, though the verb developed its own life as a word for the act rather than the person. The verb passed into Middle English as "theven," which is attested in the derived noun "thevinge," meaning thieving or stealing. Over the centuries the form narrowed from a broad sense of taking goods by stealth into the familiar modern meaning of carrying off what belongs to someone else. The past tense "thieved" simply follows the regular pattern for verbs of this kind, adding "-ed" to the base. Its meaning is the same as the base verb: it reports that someone has stolen something from another person.

Synonyms: stolen, filched, taken, purloined, lifted