theft
part of speech
noun (theft, a theft, thefts)
meaning for a pupil
1) Theft is the crime of stealing, taking something that belongs to someone else without permission and without meaning to give it back. tree →
2) A theft is one act of stealing. tree →
sense in the lessons
In lessons about right and wrong and the law, theft is a crime; a person who steals is a thief. In safety lessons children learn to keep valuables safe and to tell an adult or the police about a theft. «Identity theft» is when someone steals another person's personal details online. Phrases: «car theft», «identity theft», «report a theft», «petty theft».
examples
- The theft of the bike was reported to the police. tree →
- Theft is against the law. tree →
- There has been a theft from the changing rooms. tree →
- Identity theft can happen online. tree →
- Lock your bike to prevent theft. tree →
- The museum was closed after the theft of a painting. tree →
- Shoplifting is a kind of theft. tree →
- On discovering the theft, he beat his breast and loudly bewailed his loss. tree →
note
Plural: thefts. Related: thief (person, plural thieves), steal (verb: steal, stole, stolen). Borrowing with permission is not theft. «Finders keepers» is not a law — taking something you found that belongs to someone else can be theft.
In the corpora
- "Shrinkage" is shop talk for goods lost to theft.
- Keeping something you know belongs to someone else can count as theft, even if you found it.
- Putting a theft right means giving back or paying back, and saying sorry to the person.
- From 1788 to 1868 Britain sent about 160,000 convicts on ships to Australia, a punishment called transportation, sometimes for quite small thefts.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «theft» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.