Shoplift

Origin

Back-formation from shoplifter.

Full definition of shoplift

Noun

1. (obsolete) A shoplifter.
• 1704, John Dunton, The Athenian Oracle, Athenian Society, Volume III, page 67,...and indeed it seems a HardÅ¿hip in our Laws, that a poor Shoplift Å¿hou′d be hang′d for breaking in and pilfering a few Goods,....

Verb

1. (transitive) To steal something from a shop
   store during trading hours.
• 2004 May 17, Andrew Sean Greer, The New Yorker,She taught Maddy to sing in Portuguese, to shoplift mascara, to play a drinking game called Spoons
2. (intransitive) To steal from shops
   stores during trading hours.
• 1938 April, William Peery, Thank Rotary!, The Rotarian, page 52,Once, before we had juvenile court here, I made the mistake of putting on probation a boy who had shoplifted, a boy of good family. That boy later shot a man.
• 1969 October, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Mechanisms for Exploiting the Black Community, Negro Digest, 22,Thus, the teacher shook down the kids, the big kids shook down the little kids, the little kids shoplifted to get money, etc., etc.
• 2002 November 25, The New Yorker,In other words, New York is a better place to shoplift.

Synonyms

• shop steal Australia

Derived terms

• shoplifter
• shoplifting