About
The character 偷, meaning to steal, has a history where its primary meaning shifted from a more general sense of deceit or negligence to its specific modern criminal act. Its structure consists of the semantic component 亻(person) combined with the phonetic component 俞, which originally depicted using a tool to hollow out a tree trunk for a canoe, implying a passage or change. This composition suggests an action pertaining to a person who is engaged in a deceptive or illicit passage of goods. In earlier classical texts, the character often carried connotations of being fraudulent, sneaky, or even lax and careless, before the sense of theft became its dominant and fixed definition.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
他偷了一个苹果。
小偷偷偷地走了。
她偷看了我的日记。
不要偷别人的东西。
他因偷窃被警察逮捕。
偷懒是不好的习惯。
他试图偷走那辆自行车。
在黑暗中，他偷偷潜入房间。