How to Use pilfer in a Sentence

pilfer

verb
Definition of pilfernext
Synonyms for pilfernext
  • She pilfered stamps and paper from work.
  • Was there something from the set that your actors tried to pilfer and take home with them?
    — Todd Plummer, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 Sep. 2022
  • In the chaos, the young ruffians pilfered freely and made away with a small fortune.
    — Sylvia Poggioli, The New York Review of Books, 29 Mar. 2020
  • Nine staffers, nine pieces of clothing pilfered from pops.
    — The Editors Of Gq, GQ, 15 June 2018
  • Was there something that one of your actors tried to pilfer from set?
    — Todd Plummer, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Apr. 2023
  • Class, cash, and condos have pilfered and transfigured the filthen place that spawned No Wave.
    — Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 23 Jan. 2024
  • Within the last few months, the signs have been pilfered three times, according to a statement on the town’s website.
    — Robyn Merrett, PEOPLE.com, 12 Aug. 2019
  • And the coarse-grain dashtop might have been pilfered from the Ford Taurus assembly plant.
    — Eric Tingwall, Car and Driver, 24 June 2017
  • Yuan's plan for Zoom was to pilfer off WebEx's customers.
    — Ken Fowler, CNN, 23 Nov. 2020
  • They were plagued by fleas and pilfered wine from the casks, as evidenced by discreet holes drilled into the stores.
    — William Booth, Washington Post, 11 June 2023
  • His mission was to infiltrate the South and pilfer some of the region’s best players.
    — Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press, 6 Feb. 2020
  • It hasn’t shown up yet this year, but Wilkins still gets chances to pilfer goal line touches from Marlon Mack, whom the Colts need to preserve.
    — Phil Thompson, chicagotribune.com, 7 Oct. 2019
  • Peering into the window, Dud decides to pilfer the pipe.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2019
  • There’s even a gray couch, pilfered from an Airbnb, where Arie dumped Becca in January.
    — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 5 June 2018
  • In trying to pilfer the kit's prey, the eagle sank its talons into some part of the fox, lifting it up and swinging it back and forth mid-air, Ebi said.
    — Lynsi Burton, Houston Chronicle, 23 May 2018
  • The funds allegedly pilfered in these schemes came from Venezuela’s Petrocaribe oil program, which Haiti joined in 2006.
    — Edwidge Danticat, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2019
  • This won’t be the last time global grifters seek to pilfer U.S. technology.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 17 June 2022
  • She is led away, and the militants begin to open another car’s trunk and empty a suitcase on the ground to be pilfered.
    — Paul P. Murphy, CNN, 9 Oct. 2023
  • Same with the porch pirates who pilfer Amazon packages.
    — James Lileks, National Review, 25 July 2019
  • By contrast, thieves who pilfer the genetic code for a segment of DNA from a synthesizer have a ton of work ahead of them.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 7 Mar. 2019
  • Taking the reader inside that beautiful mind (to pilfer a phrase) is what made Lethem’s novel a tour de force.
    — Kerry Lengel,, Detroit Free Press, 31 Oct. 2019
  • There were players falling asleep and getting the ball pilfered from behind, pockets picked and a moving screen.
    — Matt Velazquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8 Jan. 2018
  • In the decades after Leonardo’s death, two-thirds to three-quarters of his original pages were likely pilfered or lost.
    — Claudia Kalb, National Geographic, 12 June 2019
  • But then there's the sight of one of the teenage lead characters crushing and snorting pills pilfered from someone else's medicine cabinet.
    — Mike Scott, NOLA.com, 1 June 2018
  • Hanging from trees rather than doorways, the mistletoe can make ATP by breaking down sugar pilfered from their hosts.
    — Roni Dengler, Science | AAAS, 3 May 2018
  • Large webs of silk are no good against larger animals, especially birds that pilfer the silk to adorn their own nests.
    — Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Oct. 2021
  • Taught young by her grandmother to thieve and pilfer, Ivy’s punishment when caught by her mother is to be sent back to China.
    — Bethanne Patrick, Washington Post, 1 Nov. 2020
  • Raccoons, marmots, mice, and other small animals have been known to pilfer tasty morsels when given the chance.
    — Kraig Becker, Popular Mechanics, 2 Apr. 2019
  • That same month, a three-legged bear pilfered some White Claw hard seltzers from a Florida family's outdoor fridge.
    — CBS News, 8 Nov. 2023
  • In some cases, museums didn’t know for days, weeks or years that their collections had been pilfered.
    — Matthew Korfhage, USA TODAY, 14 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pilfer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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