Thief-like

a. and adv. [f. THIEF + LIKE a. and adv.] a. adj. Like or resembling a thief. b. adv. In the manner of a thief.

1

1621. Fletcher, Pilgrim, II. ii. But since thou stealst upon me like a spie, And thief-like thinkst that holy case shall carry thee Through all my purposes.

2

1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 25. Each of them, thief-like, wished to steal an unobserved gaze at the other.

3

1847. Emerson, Monadnoc, 64, Poems (1857), 143.

	And thief-like step of liberal hours
	Thawing snow-drift into flowers.

4