Forms: 3–4 stalðe, 4–6 stelthe, 4–7 stelth, 5 stalth, 6 stilth, 6– stealth. [Early ME. stalðe, stelthe; the fluctuation of vowel points to an OE. *stǽlþ, f. OTeut. *stǣl- ablaut-var. of *stel-: see STEAL v. and -TH. Cf. ON. stulþ-r, Icel. stuld-r, theft, STOUTH, from the weak-grade of the same root.]
† 1. The action or practice of stealing or taking secretly and wrongfully; theft. Obs.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1767. Stalðe ic for-sake.
1357. Lay Folks Catech., T. 513. Als be sacrilege, or be symonie, Stalthe, falshede, or oker.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 346. With Covoitise yit I finde A Servant of the same kinde, Which Stelthe is hote.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 1809. And stelthes [printed steltles] guerdon is swich paiēment, Þat neuer thynke I his wages disserue.
1563. Homilies, II. Rogat., Wk. II. 240. The man in his nede, woulde not relieue his want by stealth.
1599. R. Greenham, Short Form Catech., 416. Thou shalt not steale. How many euils are herein forbidden? 1. First, all those outward acts are forbidden, whereby stealth is committed…. 3. Thirdly, all inward stealth of the heart is forbidden.
1607. Shaks., Timon, III. iv. 27. I know my Lord hath spent of Timons wealth, And now Ingratitude, makes it worse then stealth.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 407. The stealing of men … that kind of stealth.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 163. Safeguarded from sand and stealth, by a defensive wall.
1639. Act in Arch. Maryland (1883), I. 71. Stealth of ones self which is the unlawfull departure of a Servant out of service or out of the Colony.
1693. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 159. This day was published their majesties proclamation for the preventing of the stealth and imbezilment of their majesties stores of war.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 371. A despot big with pow’r obtain’d by wealth, And that obtain’d by rapine and by stealth.
¶ Contrasted with force or violence. Obs.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvii. 157. If … he take the food by force, or stealth, which he cannot obtaine for mony, [etc.].
1779. Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. 1787, IV. 16. Lord Petre cut off a lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor’s hair. This, whether stealth or violence, was so much resented [etc.].
† b. An instance of stealing; a theft. Obs.
1402. Hoccleve, Lett. Cupid, 362. And thus was mannes helthe beraft him by the fende ryght in a stelthe.
1444. Rolls of Parlt., V. 107/1. No such stelthe nor felony was comitted.
a. 1550. Vox Populi Vox Dei, iii. in Skelton’s Wks. (1843), II. 403. Vnto a comonwealthe This ys a very stealthe.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 620/1. A stealth being made by a rebell,… the stollen goodes are convayed to some husbandman.
1613. T. Campion, Relat. Ld. Knowles’ Entert., C 3. [Prometheus] These heau’n borne Starres, Who by my stealth are become Sublunars.
1648. Art. Peace Irel., xxxii. in Milton’s Wks. (1851), IV. 540. To hear and determin all Murders, Manslaughters, Rapes, Stealths,… and other Offences.
1694. Lond. Gaz., No. 3038/3. Whereas Dermot Leary, and divers others…, have … committed several Murders, Burglaries, Robberies, and Stealths.
1701. Sedley, Ant. & Cl., IV. iv. Lovers, like misers, cannot bear the stealth Of the least trifle from their endless wealth.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. on Quack, Wks. 1730, I. 63. I’th’ face of day, thou robb’st us of our health, And yet art never question’d for the stealth.
1797. Sheridan, Pizarro, II. i. A mother’s love for her sweet babe is not a stealth from the dear father’s store.
† c. Plagiarism. Obs.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 122. For the matter, it is whole Aristotles … both Catulus and Crassus do oft and pleasantly lay that stelth to Antonius charge.
1627. Hakewill, Apol. (1630), 29. One collected his [Virgil’s] faults, another his stealths, as Donatus in his life hath observed.
1637. Suckling, Acc. Relig., Fragm. Aurea (1648), 107. For all before were but little stealths from Moses works.
1653. Milton, Hirelings, Wks. 1851, V. 367. The unskilful and immethodical teaching of thir Pastor, teaching … at random … as his ease or fansie, and oft-times as his stealth guides him.
† d. Cunning thievishness. Obs.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 96. Hog in sloth, Foxe in stealth, Wolfe in greedinesse.
† 2. Something stolen; something to steal; plunder. Obs.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 13252. Forth with hym hys stelthe he bar.
1560. Phaër, Æneid, IX. (1562), C iiij. Aye watching lyke some Wolfe, yt … about mens deiries houling trotts at midnight seking stealth.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 620/1. By which meanes the theeves are greatly encouraged to steale, and theyr mayntayners emboldened to receave theyr stealths.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 9. That none of the Countrey receive any stelths from Neighbour-Countreys.
1634. Milton, Comus, 503. I came not here … to pursue the stealth Of pilfering Woolf.
1638. Mayne, Lucian (1664), 344. Next morning he was apprehended with his stealths about him.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., VII. 419. More were concealed by parties not detectable, so cunningly they carried their stealths.
fig. 1567. Painter, Pal. Pleas., II. 407. Ye I say, that pursue the secrete stelths of loue.
† 3. The action of stealing or going furtively into or out of a place; the action of stealing or gliding along unperceived. Obs.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 310. I told him of your stealth vnto this wood. Ibid. (c. 1600), Sonn., lxxvii. Thou by thy dyals shady stealth maist know, Times theeuish progress to eternitie. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., I. v. 316. Methinkes I feele this youths perfections With an inuisible, and subtle stealth To creepe in at mine eyes.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. xxviii. § 6. 650. By this secret subterrane vault Zedechias making his stealth, recouered … the plaines or deserts of Iericho.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 281. A quiet and insensible induction, deceiving the eye with a strange stealth of change.
1788. T. Warton, On H. M. Birth-day, 51. And many a fane he rear’d, that still sublime In massy pomp has mock’d the stealth of time.
† b. A stealing or coming by surprise upon a person. Obs.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xii. (1623), 698. Skulking surprises and vnder-hand stealthes.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. viii. § 13. 166. So doe I thinke, that neither the Sabæi on the Red Sea, nor those toward the Persian Sea, could by any meanes execute the stealth vpon Job.
† 4. Furtive or underhand action; an act accomplished by eluding observation or discovery. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4057. Vor hii ne mowe noȝt segge þat wiþ treson oþer stalþe it were ydo.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., I. ii. 158. The stealth of our most mutuall entertainment With Character too grosse, is writ on Iuliet. Ibid. (1605), Lear, I. ii. 11. Base, Base? Who in the lustie stealth of Nature, take More composition, and fierce qualitie, Then [etc.].
1615. Daniel, Hymen’s Tri., I. i. And hence it grew that gaue us both our fears, That made our Meeting Stealth, our Parting Tears.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., I. (1626), 16. Iuno … For her mist Husband searcheth Heauen: as one, To whom his stealths so often had beene knowne.
1668. P. M., Charleton’s Ephes. & Cimm. Matrons, II. 22–3. No eye can … be able to trace them in their amorous stealths.
1797. Coleridge, Christabel, I. 120. But we will move as if in stealth.
5. By stealth. † a. With reference to taking or appropriating: By an act of theft; secretly and without right or permission. Also, in wider sense, with reference to wrongful or forbidden acts generally. Obs. b. In modern use, the phrase has ordinarily no conscious association with steal vb. or sense 1 of the sb., and has the neutral sense: Secretly, clandestinely.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 63. [He] hath his pourpos ofte achieved … of worldes welthe, And takth it, as who seith, be stelthe.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. lv. (1495), 814. The dranes … vneth they ben suffryd to ete of ony, but as moche as they ete it is by stelthe.
1454. Rolls of Parlt., V. 274/2. Grete habundaunce of Wolles as welle by stalth as by licence is uttred into the parties beyond the See.
1480. Cov. Leet Bk. (1908), 459. [They] ffysshen be nyght & day the seid pole … be stalth.
c. 1530. Crt. of Love, 1362. And who come late, he pressed in by stelth.
1592. Arden of Feversham, I. 138. And, Mosbie, thou that comes to me by stelth, Shalt [etc.].
1611. Bible, 2 Sam. xix. 3. The people gate them by stealth that day into the citie, as people beeing ashamed steale away when they flee in battell.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 134. The English bring into France … sheep skinnes, and by stealth other Hides, forbidden to be exported.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 352. Lurking Lizards often lodge, by Stealth, Within the Suburbs, and purloin their Wealth.
1738. Pope, Epil. Sat., I. 136. Let humble Allen … Do good by stealth, and blush to find it Fame.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), V. 261. He had been privately engaged to draw by stealth the portrait of old Mr. Thomas Baker.
1775. Harris, Philos. Arrangem., Wks. (1841), 248. Marcus Antoninus … still persisted in … committing his thoughts to writing, during moments gained by stealth from the hurry of courts and campaigns.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 995. So life glides smoothly and by stealth away.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 220. Congregations which had hitherto met only by stealth and in darkness.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 135. He did enter by stealth into the common workshop of Athene and Hephaestus.
6. Comb. (nonce-words) as stealth-like adj., stealthwise adv., stealth-won adj.
1800. Coleridge, Death Wallenstein, I. xii. What import these silent nods and gestures Which stealthwise thou exchangest with her?
1807. Wordsw., White Doe, VII. 1650. A little while it stayed;… And then advanced with stealth-like pace.
1893. F. Thompson, Poems, 3. As lovers, banished from their lady’s face,… Fondly adore Some stealth-won cast attire she wore, A kerchief, or a glove.
