thieves 1 of 2

noun

plural of thief
as in robbers
one who steals a thief has been stealing wallets and valuables from the lockers at the gym

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thieves

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of thieve
as in steals
to take (something) without right and with an intent to keep someone's been thieving my cookies!

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of thieves
Noun
The thieves also damaged the main office building with copper wiring and components removed from rooftop systems and air conditioning units, police said. — Carlos E. Castañeda, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026 Europol has warned of an increase in museum robberies, with gold objects proving particularly attractive to thieves. — Daniel Cassady, ARTnews.com, 16 Oct. 2026 Notifications are either helpful nudges or time-consuming attention thieves, depending on your worldview. — Adam Clark Estes, Vox, 16 Oct. 2026 Just hours after the Louvre heist last October –– which saw thieves strike during broad daylight and make off with Napoleonic-era treasures –– another French museum was similarly targeted. — Lianne Kolirin, CNN Money, 16 Oct. 2026 The device captures troves of card information, which thieves later collect in order to clone cards. — Juliana Kim, NPR, 14 Oct. 2026 The thieves used an electric saw to cut through a fence, entered the museum through the ground floor and cut clips securing the frames of four paintings. — Sylvie Corbet, Arkansas Online, 13 Oct. 2026 The thieves arrived with two trucks, and the bottles were ripe for the taking as they were already packed and waiting to get shipped to Antinori’s export markets. — Catherina Gioino, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026 In 2017, thieves stole about 2,000 bottles of rare wines valued at 750,000 euros from a warehouse near the Adriatic resort town of Cervia. — ABC News, 9 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for thieves
  1. robbers
  2. steals
  3. burglars
  4. swipes
Noun
  • In Tokyo and Osaka, there are Chinese gangsters, Brazilian robbers, and even a gang of thieves from Serbia and Montenegro called the Pink Panthers.
    — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The robbers were under the impression that the warehouse held foreign currency but instead found 6,800 candy-bar-sized gold ingots alongside diamonds, travelers checks, and precious metals.
    — Frannie Comstock, Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of robbers
Verb
  • But for all the resort’s creature comforts, nature still steals the show.
    — Chris Schalkx, Vogue, 8 Oct. 2026
  • The usual answer to this has been to rely on nuclear power to make it through the night, but there is an alternative that steals a page from Earth's playbook.
    — David Szondy October 07, New Atlas, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of steals
Noun
  • The store owner told CBS News Chicago the burglars took an ATM with $2,000 inside.
    — Elyssa Kaufman, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
  • The burglars dropped the other two paintings—the 1895 Portrait of Madame Pichon and the 1905 Coco Lisant—in the garden of the museum while making their escape.
    — News Desk, Artforum, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of burglars
Verb
  • Gaga then swipes concealer under her eyes, on the center of her forehead and around her mouth.
    — Catherine Santino, PEOPLE, 3 Sep. 2026
  • When someone swipes a card, the device can capture account information and the PIN used during the transaction.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of swipes

Browse Nearby Words

thievery
thieves
thieving
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Cite this Entry

“Thieves.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thieves. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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