Definition of "steal"

steal

/stiːl/

verb
third-person singular simple present steals, present participle stealing, simple past stole, past participle stolen or (nonstandard, colloquial) stole
1. (transitive) To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
  Quotations
  At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […].
  1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, page 202
  "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. I never did that. I always made up my mind I'd be a big man some day, and—I'm glad I didn't steal."
  1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919
2. (transitive, of ideas, words, music, a look, credit, etc.) To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement.
3. (transitive) To get or effect surreptitiously or artfully.
  Quotations
  Variety of objects has a tendency to steal away the mind too often from its steady pursuit of any subject.
  1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […]
  Always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, […] and do not think to steal it.
  1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Great Place”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret
4. (transitive, colloquial) To acquire at a low price.
5. (transitive) To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show.
6. (intransitive) To move silently or secretly.
  Quotations
  At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […].
  1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, page 202
  "Did he take his bottle well?" Mrs. Flanders whispered, and Rebecca nodded and went to the cot and turned down the quilt, and Mrs. Flanders bent over and looked anxiously at the baby, asleep, but frowning. The window shook, and Rebecca stole like a cat and wedged it.
  1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960,
  United's hopes of mounting a serious response suffered a blow within two minutes of the restart when Evans, who had endured a miserable afternoon, lost concentration and allowed Balotelli to steal in behind him. The defender's only reaction was to haul the Italian down, resulting in an inevitable red card.
  2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1-6 Man City”, in BBC Sport
7. (transitive) To convey (something) clandestinely.
  Quotations
  The fact that European Cuckoos steal their eggs into the nests of other birds has been generally known for more than a thousand years.
  1948, Alec H. Chisholm, Bird Wonders of Australia, page 41
8. To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely.
  Quotations
  They could insinuate and steal themselves under the same by their humble carriage and submission.
  1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […]; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809,
  He will steal himself into a man's favour.
  c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene vi]
9. (transitive, baseball) To advance safely to (another base) during the delivery of a pitch, without the aid of a hit, walk, passed ball, wild pitch, or defensive indifference.
10. (sports, transitive) To dispossess
  Quotations
  However, until Gardner stole the ball from Dean Whitehead in the centre circle with the half-hour approaching, setting off on a run which culminated with a testing long-range shot - with debutant Obafemi Martins lurking, Begovic gathered at the second time of asking - Stoke looked the more credible contenders to break the deadlock.
  2011 February 12, Les Roopanarine, “Birmingham 1-0 Stoke”, in BBC
11. (informal, transitive, hyperbolic) To borrow for a short moment.
12. (informal, transitive, humorous) take, plagiarize, tell on a joke, use a well-worded expression in one's own parlance or writing
noun
plural steals
1. The act of stealing.
2. (slang) A piece of merchandise available at a very low, attractive price.
3. (basketball, ice hockey) A situation in which a defensive player actively takes possession of the ball or puck from the opponent's team.
4. (baseball) A stolen base.
5. (curling) Scoring in an end without the hammer.
6. (computing) A policy in database systems that a database follows which allows a transaction to be written on nonvolatile storage before its commit occurs.

Definition of "steal"

steal

verb

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noun