LARCENY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does larceny mean? 

• LARCENY (noun)
  The noun LARCENY has 1 sense:

1. the act of taking something from someone unlawfully

  Familiarity information: LARCENY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LARCENY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of taking something from someone unlawfully

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

larceny; stealing; theft; thievery; thieving

Context example:

the thieving is awful at Kennedy International

Hypernyms ("larceny" is a kind of...):

felony (a serious crime (such as murder or arson))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "larceny"):

breach of trust with fraudulent intent (larceny after trust rather than after unlawful taking)

defalcation; embezzlement; misapplication; misappropriation; peculation (the fraudulent appropriation of funds or property entrusted to your care but actually owned by someone else)

pilferage (the act of stealing small amounts or small articles)

shoplifting; shrinkage (the act of stealing goods that are on display in a store)

robbery (larceny by threat of violence)

biopiracy (biological theft; illegal collection of indigenous plants by corporations who patent them for their own use)

grand larceny; grand theft (larceny of property having a value greater than some amount (the amount varies by locale))

petit larceny; petty; petty larceny (larceny of property having a value less than some amount (the amount varies by locale))

skimming (failure to declare income in order to avoid paying taxes on it)

rustling (the stealing of cattle)

Derivation:

larcener; larcenist (a person who commits larceny)

 Context examples 

The busts! You never can get those busts out of your head. After all, that is nothing; petty larceny, six months at the most.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)