Definition of "thief"

thief

/θiːf/

noun
plural thieves
1. One who carries out a theft.
  Quotations
  water-thieves and land-thieves
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
2. One who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.
  Quotations
  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.
  1580, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: […], London: […] Henrie Denham [beeing the assigne of William Seres] […]; republished as W[illiam] Payne and Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, stanza 4, page 166
3. (obsolete) A waster in the snuff of a candle.
  Quotations
  But hear you, my Worthy Brethren: do not you, where you see a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher […]
  1640, Joseph Hall, Divine Light