- 1
One who carries out a theft.
- water-thieves and land-thieves
- 2
One who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.
- Take heed to false harlots, and more, ye wot what. / If noise ye heare, / Looke all be cleare: / Least drabs doe noie thee, / And theeues destroie thee.
- 3
A waster in the snuff of a candle.obsolete
- But hear you, my Worthy Brethren: do not you, where you see a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher[…]
syn. abstractor · appropriator · bagger · booster · borrower · cribber · faker · filcher · flogger · heister · larcener · larcenist