How to Use pilfer in a Sentence

pilfer

verb
  • She pilfered stamps and paper from work.
  • The film doesn’t just pilfer that thesis.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Was there something that one of your actors tried to pilfer from set?
    — Todd Plummer, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Apr. 2023
  • That story, like most of Latsabidze’s work, was pilfered from the web.
    — Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 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
  • Just as most of these attempts to pilfer from our lexicon do.
    — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 20 Oct. 2014
  • This is not the first time public art has been pilfered in San Jose.
    — Jason Green, Mercury News, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Every detail is pilfered from the lives of people around me, or from my own.
    — Rosemary Feitelberg, Footwear News, 15 Oct. 2025
  • 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
  • The customer records were pilfered in a July breach.
    — Andrew Nusca, Fortune, 13 Oct. 2025
  • A little pantry pilfering is your right as a member of the household.
    — John Hodgman, New York Times, 8 May 2026
  • 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
  • The woman then rises and acts as a lookout while the man pilfers display cases.
    — ajc, 10 Jan. 2016
  • Play short-order cook, throw swords, pilfer donuts from a dragon’s lair, and more in this raucous party game.
    — Jennifer Maas, Variety, 13 Nov. 2025
  • The white uniform, again, looks as if it was pilfered from the pre-2015 locker room.
    — Joey Morona, cleveland, 13 Apr. 2020
  • The result has been crumbs thrown our way while Google continues pilfering.
    — Mercury News & East Bay Times Editorial, Mercury News, 10 June 2025
  • 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 so, somehow, this courtship of rock throwing, name-calling, and pilfering gives way to true friendship.
    — Mark Warren, Esquire, 28 Nov. 2012
  • Class, cash, and condos have pilfered and transfigured the filthen place that spawned No Wave.
    — Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 23 Jan. 2024
  • Large webs of silk are no good against larger animals, especially birds that pilfer the silk to adorn their own nests.
    — Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Oct. 2021
  • 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
  • His mission was to infiltrate the South and pilfer some of the region’s best players.
    — Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press, 6 Feb. 2020
  • Small bulbs like crocus are probably the most commonly pilfered.
    — Paul Cappiello, Louisville Courier Journal, 10 Oct. 2025
  • 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
  • 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
  • And the coarse-grain dashtop might have been pilfered from the Ford Taurus assembly plant.
    — Eric Tingwall, Car and Driver, 24 June 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
  • 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
  • Many of the things that happen in this film have happened for real, and they’re pilfered from actual F1 events.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 1 Mar. 2026
  • That might set the stage for the Dodgers to pilfer one of the Padres' top arms from recent years, and spark the rivalry in the process.
    — Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pilfer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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