Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The unlawful taking and removing of another's personal property with the intent of permanently depriving the owner; theft.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In law, the wrongful or fraudulent taking and carrying away, by any person and from any place, of the mere personal goods of another, with a felonious intent to convert them to the taker's own use, and make them his own property, without the consent of the owner; theft. East. According to some recent authorities, conversion with felonious intent may be larceny although there was no intent to appropriate the thing to the use of the thief himself. At common law appropriation by an employee or bailee already in lawful possession was not larceny, but at most embezzlement. By modern statute, in several jurisdictions acts formerly amounting only to embezzlement have been made larceny.
Wiktionary
- n. law The unlawful taking of personal property as an attempt to deprive the legal owner of it permanently.
- n. law A larcenous act attributable to an individual.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Law) The unlawful taking and carrying away of things personal with intent to deprive the right owner of the same; theft. Cf. embezzlement.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of taking something from someone unlawfully
Etymologies
- Coined between 1425 and 1475 from Anglo-Norman larcin ("theft"), from Latin latrocinium ("robbery"), from latro ("robber, mercenary"), from Ancient Greek λάτρον ("pay, hire") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Anglo-Norman larcin, theft, from Latin latrōcinium, robbery, from latrō, robber, mercenary, utimately from Greek latron, pay, hire. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For example, an officer who wanted to hide a grand larceny, which is counted as an index crime and as such would affect the city's crime rate, could classify the crime as a petite larceny, a statistic that is not counted as part of the official crime rate.”
The Wall Street Journal: Police in About-Face on City Crime Data
“Stealing without administering fear is called larceny, stealing by administering fear is called robbery, the keyword here is “steal.””
“He was convicted instead of grand larceny, that is, of stealing his bonuses, which were certainly oversized.”
“Judge Rafalsky held, for instance, that if a crime had been committed at all, it was not that known as larceny, and he went on to add:”
“When Stores could not, they were prone to steal vegetables, melons and poultry from the convicts, a transgression Ross punished as severely as if the larceny were the other way around.”
“_But besides simple larceny, which is divided into grand and petty, there is a mixed larceny which has a greater degree of guilt in it, as being a taking from the person of a man or from his house.”
“I said, "Well, I'm a scout, and I don't call larceny grand.”
“Camelopards, he declared that such a larceny was a moral impossibility, because he had never seen one such animal in the whole course of his life.”
“But besides simple larceny, which is divided into grand and petty, there is a mixed larceny which has a greater degree of guilt in it, as being a taking from the person of a man or from his house.”
Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed
“You can't profit from someone's mistake ... there is a law about that, too and it's called larceny by mistake ...”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘larceny’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words that shouldn't be used on a fir...
probation, trekkie, wart, unemployed, fetish, suspended driver'..., felon, aerophagia, undies, debt collector, girlfriend, boyfriend and 272 more...
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JURI - crimes and offences
Don't commit any of these if you can
firearms trafficking, serious and organ..., trafficking in hu..., illegal shipment ..., cybercrime, money laundering, sale of counterfe..., sale of dangerous..., smuggling, infraction, corruption, organised crime and 153 more...
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Dirty Deeds, Acts & Villainous Arcana
Villains, evildoers, and the wonderful words to describe them.
putsch, internecine, galère, stygian, infernal, opprobrium, anathema, bruit, scurrility, mulct, misanthropic, invective and 102 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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Thief Words
Words that deal with stealing and thievery!
steal, plunder, theif, robber, rob, take, kidnap, stole, take ownership, snatch, grab, hide and 19 more...
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Nouny
calumny, parsimony, gluttony, alimony, sanctimony, harmony, miscegeny, telephony, colony, antimony, larceny, mahogany and 26 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
tatterdemalion, panopticon, idioglossia, hypnagogue, hypnopomp, defenestration, anacoluthon, scofflaw, affront, edifying, palimpsest, naufrage and 475 more...
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Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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wunderkammer's Words
smarmy, bubkes, elucidate, togs, aeolian, carp, kibosh, bosky, ramshackle, mange, harpy, effervesce and 163 more...
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Necessary?
"Words are very..."
The above was the original description for this list. Unfortunately, it doesn't convey much about the list contents.
I'm leaving you to draw your own conclusions abo...supererogation, fruitcake, unbeknownst, melifluous, bane, cavy, unnecessary, lyrical, question, undertow, weapon, arduous and 200 more...
Tweets
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