purloin

So you have this old-ass opera being mounted in an all-but-abandoned art palace, on the one hand; and this guy, on the other, using state of-the-art technology to purloin the singing.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2022

It is the first to show some T cells purloin a protein called CD20 from the surface of B cells, he adds.

From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2022

A series of turns leads Bunton, during an ill-conceived trip to London to make his case against the BBC license fee to Parliament and the media, to purloin the Wellington portrait from the National Gallery.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2021

Nandor immediately uses his new position to purloin a magical cloak to help him hit on the front desk clerk at his gym.

From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2021

He hesitated, then stomped back the way he’d come, stopping to purloin a clean shirt from another cabin.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

With a fee that she purloins from a church collection plate, she implores him for help and he agrees, as he learns more about this young girl’s challenging childhood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025

He survives, and in the chaos purloins a painting that his mother loved and with which he becomes obsessed.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 5, 2019

Desperate to buy her father out of debtor’s prison, she purloins a copy of his thesis and sets out to win the Great God Contest herself.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2015

The best exemplar of the species is probably E. W. Hornung’s Raffles, who was educated at the best schools, plays cricket for England, moves among the upper classes and discreetly purloins their jewels.

From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2012

Religious agnosticism, like all other forms of the theory of nescience, derives its plausibility from the adventitious help it purloins from the knowledge which it condemns.

From Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher by Sir Henry Jones

Evolution has similarly purloined existing features and modified them, using great thrift, for example, to transmogrify a piece of jaw into an ear or to transform a leg into a wing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025

Four middle-aged suspects were arrested in Southern California this week when officers found them in possession of roughly $300,000 worth of purloined Lego sets, according to the California Highway Patrol.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2024

Not long afterward, another male red fox entered the scene of the crime; the purloined repast had been his.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

Stealthily, from its roost on the ceiling, one bat reached out and purloined his sun hat.

From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023

She had a cloth bag with food purloined from the fridge slung across her chest.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

With regard to a Hemingway purloining on “Love and Theft”: “Dylan implants only part of the original sentence, while presumably expecting us to cough up the whole.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026

“You know, they say that Atlanta influences everything,” Williams told the crowd, purloining a phrase often used to describe Atlanta’s paramount place in African American and broader American culture.

From Seattle Times ● May 14, 2022

And those who get their kicks from purloining stuff that they’re expected to pay for were especially grumpy.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 21, 2014

One of the rare politicians who paid a price for purloining was Joe Biden, whom I profiled in the magazine last week.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 29, 2014

Second-hand book-dealers in Boston had found a judge of the court purloining rare pamphlets, and ministers making away with pamphlet sermons under their coats.

From A Book for All Readers An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries by Ainsworth Rand Spofford