Phrase guide

shop stealer

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A shoplifter.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia

Examples

  • If you suspect a shop stealer, pay this person a lot of attention.
  • 1989, Criminologica Foundation, Criminology & Penology Abstracts, Volume 29, Issues 4-6, page 438, This article reports comparisons of views on shop stealers held by involved professionals [...] .
  • 2003, Geoffrey Heard, Gordon Woolf, Success in Store: How to Start Or Buy a Retail Business, Enjoy Running It, The Worsley Press, Australia, page 107, I am writing this the day after I sacked a customer (yes, you can sack a customer — Gordon′s example of a shop stealer is sacking a customer) who is struggling for dollars, but refused to take advice about building his business and accepted the blandishments of a Yellow Pages salesman.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Unclear, but ultimately from shoplifter (which predates the verb shoplift). Structurally, shop steal + -er, but perhaps more likely is that both verb and agent noun forms were coined around the same time by alteration of shoplift / shoplifter to carry the nuanced greater emphasis on theft.

Across languages

Translations

4 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese: 入店行窃 (ru4.dian4.xing2.qie4) — shoplifter
  • Finnish: myymälävaras — shoplifter
  • Polish: złodziej sklepowy — shoplifter
  • Polish: złodziejka sklepowa — shoplifter