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

• (RP) enPR: thēf, IPA: /θiːf/
• (America) IPA: /θif/

thief (plural thieves)

1. One who carries out a theft.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:thief

   • 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, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     water-thieves and land-thieves

2. One who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.
   • 1878, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC ↗; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC ↗, stanza 4, page 166 ↗:

     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. (obsolete) A waster in the snuff of a candle.
   • 1640, Joseph Hall, Divine Light:

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

• thieve

• French: voleur, voleuse
• German: Dieb, Diebin
• Italian: ladro, ladra, ladruncolo, borsaiolo, scippatore, mariolo, taccheggiatore, malandrino, borseggiatore
• Portuguese: ladrão, ladra
• Russian: вор
• Spanish: ladrón, caco (colloquial), chorizo (colloquial), mangante (colloquial), amigo de lo ajeno (colloquial), chori