Definition of "shoplift"

[…] and indeed it seems a Hardſhip in our Laws, that a poor Shoplift ſhou′d be hang′d for breaking in and pilfering a few Goods, […] .

1704, John Dunton, The Athenian Oracle, Athenian Society, Volume III, page 67

She taught Maddy to sing in Portuguese, to shoplift mascara, to play a drinking game called Spoons

2004 May 17, Andrew Sean Greer, The New Yorker

Once, before we had juvenile court here, I made the mistake of putting on probation a boy who had shoplifted, a boy of good family. That boy later shot a man.

1938 April, William Peery, “Thank Rotary!”, in The Rotarian, page 52

Thus, the teacher shook down the kids, the big kids shook down the little kids, the little kids shoplifted to get money, etc., etc.

1969 October, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Mechanisms for Exploiting the Black Community, Negro Digest, 22

In other words, New York is a better place to shoplift.

2002 November 25, The New Yorker