Abscond vs Steal - What's the difference?
abscond | steal |
(intransitive, reflexive, archaic) To hide, to be in hiding or concealment.
* 1691-1735 , (John Ray), The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation [http://books.google.com/books?id=rRI5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA300&dq=intitle:works+of+creation+inauthor:ray&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mpnNUZHMJ4Pu0gGZo4GICw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=absconds&f=false]
(reflexive) To flee, often secretly; to steal away, particularly to avoid arrest or prosecution.
* 1848 , (Thomas Babington Macaulay), , Ch. 13
* 1911 , (Ambrose Bierce), (w, The Devil's Dictionary)
To withdraw from.
* 2006 , Richard Rojcewicz, The Gods And Technology: A Reading Of Heidegger , ISBN 0791482308.
* 2009 , Sonia Brill, Relationships Without Anger , ISBN 144902789X.
(obsolete) To conceal; to take away.
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(label) To evade, to hide or flee from.
* 2006 , Aldo E. Chircop, Olof Lindén, Places of Refuge for Ships , ISBN 900414952X.
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(lb) To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else.
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*:"I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal'. I never did that. I always made up my mind I'd be a big man some day, and—I'm glad I didn't ' steal ."
To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement.
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(lb) To get or effect surreptitiously or artfully.
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*(Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
*:Variety of objects has a tendency to steal away the mind from its steady pursuit of any subject.
*(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
*:Always, when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly,and do not think to steal it.
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To acquire at a low price.
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(lb) To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show.
(lb) To move silently or secretly.
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*1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Ch.1:
*:"Did he take his bottle well?" Mrs. Flanders whispered, and Rebecca nodded and went to the cot and turned down the quilt, and Mrs. Flanders bent over and looked anxiously at the baby, asleep, but frowning. The window shook, and Rebecca stole like a cat and wedged it.
*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 23, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
, title= To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely.
*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
*:They could insinuate and steal themselves under the same by their humble carriage and submission.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:He will steal himself into a man's favour.
To advance safely to (another base) during the delivery of a pitch, without the aid of a hit, walk, passed ball, wild pitch, or defensive indifference.
To dispossess
*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=February 12, author=Les Roopanarine, work=BBC
, title= The act of stealing.
A piece of merchandise available at a very attractive price.
(basketball, ice hockey) A situation in which a defensive player actively takes possession of the ball or puck from the opponent's team.
(baseball) A stolen base.
(curling) Scoring in an end without the hammer.
(computing) A policy in database systems that a database follows which allows a transaction to be written on nonvolatile storage before its commit occurs
As verbs the difference between abscond and steal
is that abscond is (intransitive|reflexive|archaic) to hide, to be in hiding or concealment while steal is (lb) to take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else.As a noun steal is
the act of stealing.abscond
English
Verb
(en verb)- the Marmotto , live upon its own Fat.
- ... that very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond at the risk of stripes and of death.
- Spring beckons! All things to the call respond;
The trees are leaving and cashiers abscond .
- Modern technology accompanies the absconding of the original attitude.
- You cannot abscond from the responsibility both you and your partner owe to this event, and that includes dealing with anger issues and any other emotional issues that come with it.
- The captain absconded his responsibility
- If the distress situation is solved succesfully, the anonymous shipowner will reap the commercial benefit, if the situation ends in disaster, the shipowner will hide behind an anonymous post box in a foreign country and will abscond responsibility.
References
steal
English
Verb
Man Utd 1-6 Man City, passage=United's hopes of mounting a serious response suffered a blow within two minutes of the restart when Evans, who had endured a miserable afternoon, lost concentration and allowed Balotelli to steal in behind him. The defender's only reaction was to haul the Italian down, resulting in an inevitable red card.}}
Birmingham 1-0 Stoke, passage=However, until Gardner stole the ball from Dean Whitehead in the centre circle with the half-hour approaching, setting off on a run which culminated with a testing long-range shot - with debutant Obafemi Martins lurking, Begovic gathered at the second time of asking - Stoke looked the more credible contenders to break the deadlock.}}
Synonyms
* (to illegally take possession of) flog, (Cockney rhyming slang) half-inch, (slang) knock off, (slang) jack, lift, nick, pinch, pocket, rob, thieve, confiscate, convert * (to secretly move) sneak * See alsoAntonyms
* (acquire licitly ) receive, purchase, buy, earn * (provide freely ) donate, bestow, grantTroponyms
* shopliftSee also
* burglarize * burgle * confiscate * pickpocket * pilfer * steal awayNoun
(en noun)- At this price, this car is a steal .