How to Use pilfer in a Sentence

pilfer

verb

• She pilfered stamps and paper from work.
• That story, like most of Mr. Latsabidze’s work, was pilfered from the web.
  — Andrew Higgins, Mike McIntire and Gabriel J.x. Dance, New York Times, 25 Nov. 2016
• Was there something from the set that your actors tried to pilfer and take home with them?
  — Todd Plummer, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 Sep. 2022
• In the chaos, the young ruffians pilfered freely and made away with a small fortune.
  — Sylvia Poggioli, The New York Review of Books, 29 Mar. 2020
• Nine staffers, nine pieces of clothing pilfered from pops.
  — The Editors Of Gq, GQ, 15 June 2018
• Was there something that one of your actors tried to pilfer from set?
  — Todd Plummer, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Apr. 2023
• Class, cash, and condos have pilfered and transfigured the filthen place that spawned No Wave.
  — Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 23 Jan. 2024
• While two of the graves were once pilfered by robbers, the third—and its many treasures—has remained untouched for up to 1,800 years.
  — Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 May 2024
• Within the last few months, the signs have been pilfered three times, according to a statement on the town’s website.
  — Robyn Merrett, PEOPLE.com, 12 Aug. 2019
• And the coarse-grain dashtop might have been pilfered from the Ford Taurus assembly plant.
  — Eric Tingwall, Car and Driver, 24 June 2017
• Yuan's plan for Zoom was to pilfer off WebEx's customers.
  — Ken Fowler, CNN, 23 Nov. 2020
• They were plagued by fleas and pilfered wine from the casks, as evidenced by discreet holes drilled into the stores.
  — William Booth, Washington Post, 11 June 2023
• His mission was to infiltrate the South and pilfer some of the region’s best players.
  — Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press, 6 Feb. 2020
• Over the years, Beatles fans have pilfered so many of the Penny Lane street signs that the city has had to affix them to metal posts.
  — Dan Fellner, The Arizona Republic, 6 June 2024
• It hasn’t shown up yet this year, but Wilkins still gets chances to pilfer goal line touches from Marlon Mack, whom the Colts need to preserve.
  — Phil Thompson, chicagotribune.com, 7 Oct. 2019
• Just as most of these attempts to pilfer from our lexicon do.
  — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 20 Oct. 2014
• Peering into the window, Dud decides to pilfer the pipe.
  — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2019
• The woman then rises and acts as a lookout while the man pilfers display cases.
  — ajc, 10 Jan. 2016
• There’s even a gray couch, pilfered from an Airbnb, where Arie dumped Becca in January.
  — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 5 June 2018
• In trying to pilfer the kit's prey, the eagle sank its talons into some part of the fox, lifting it up and swinging it back and forth mid-air, Ebi said.
  — Lynsi Burton, Houston Chronicle, 23 May 2018
• The funds allegedly pilfered in these schemes came from Venezuela’s Petrocaribe oil program, which Haiti joined in 2006.
  — Edwidge Danticat, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2019
• This won’t be the last time global grifters seek to pilfer U.S. technology.
  — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 17 June 2022
• The league has soured on the rich getting richer by pilfering mid- and small-market teams for their up-and-coming talent.
  — Alicia Ping-Quon Wittmeyer, The Denver Post, 11 Feb. 2017
• She is led away, and the militants begin to open another car’s trunk and empty a suitcase on the ground to be pilfered.
  — Paul P. Murphy, CNN, 9 Oct. 2023
• Same with the porch pirates who pilfer Amazon packages.
  — James Lileks, National Review, 25 July 2019
• And so, somehow, this courtship of rock throwing, name-calling, and pilfering gives way to true friendship.
  — Mark Warren, Esquire, 28 Nov. 2012
• By contrast, thieves who pilfer the genetic code for a segment of DNA from a synthesizer have a ton of work ahead of them.
  — IEEE Spectrum, 7 Mar. 2019
• Taking the reader inside that beautiful mind (to pilfer a phrase) is what made Lethem’s novel a tour de force.
  — Kerry Lengel,, Detroit Free Press, 31 Oct. 2019
• There were players falling asleep and getting the ball pilfered from behind, pockets picked and a moving screen.
  — Matt Velazquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8 Jan. 2018
• Once the crowd has pilfered through your inventory and made their way home, there will undoubtedly be a few odds and ends left over.
  — Mandi Woodruff, Teen Vogue, 2 Sep. 2016

Last Updated: 3 Nov 2024