Shoplift Meaning
/ˈʃɒplɪft/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA shoplifter.
verbTo steal something from a shop or store during business hours, usually by means of hiding merchandise.
Sentence Examples
Let's go shoplift from the supermarket.
It was simply caprice that led them to shoplift.
CEFR Practice Quiz
If you ____ from the store, you will be arrested.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The security guards are trained to watch for anyone who might try to ____ expensive items from the store.
Word Origin & History
Back-formation from shoplifter.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"She taught Maddy to sing in Portuguese, to shoplift mascara, to play a drinking game called Spoons"
— 2004 May 17, Andrew Sean Greer, The New Yorker:
"Week after week, racist posts appear on Thee Rant, a blog for current or former New York City police officers: African Americans are called “apes;” a retired officer says one of the blessings of retirement is not having to work the Puerto Rican Day parade, with its “old obese tatted up women stuffed into outfits that they purchased or shoplifted at the local Kmart store; […]"
— 2015 April 19, Joaquin Sapien, “"The worst elements of the department": New York cop blog is home to some of the most vile racism on the Internet”, in Salon:
"Once, before we had juvenile court here, I made the mistake of putting on probation a boy who had shoplifted, a boy of good family. That boy later shot a man."
— 1938 April, William Peery, “Thank Rotary!”, in The Rotarian, page 52:
"In other words, New York is a better place to shoplift."
— 2002 November 25, The New Yorker:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
If you ____ from the store, you will be arrested.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The security guards are trained to watch for anyone who might try to ____ expensive items from the store.