thief

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   One who carries out a theft.

   water-thieves and land-thieves

2. 2
   noun

   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. 3
   noun

   A waster in the snuff of a candle.

   But hear you, my Worthy Brethren: do not you, where you see a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher[…]

4. 4
   noun

   a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it

Etymology

From Middle English thef, theef, þef, from Old English þēof, from Proto-West Germanic *þeub, from Proto-Germanic *þeubaz.