stole sb thunder, Stealer, purloin, pilfered, steal a march, stealing the election

China is the linchpin of the multitrillion-dollar consumer-electronics industry. But under a weighty combination of commercial and political pressure, foreign companies are beginning to pluck to look beyond China for growth https://econ.trib.al/cOLFYKB

Illustration: Vincent Kilbride

China: For years, the Thousand Talents recruitment plan attracted U.S. scientists with grants. Federal prosecutors now say China used the program to purloin sensitive technology.

Alexander Calder
The Stainless Stealer, 1996
Stainless steel and aluminum
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Wilkie Collins gives the reader all the necessary pieces to the puzzle, but they are so cleverly disguised that his surprise ending takes the breath away. The elements that make up The Moonstone—a purloined jewel that carries a mysterious curse, an indefatigable British police sergeant, a drama of theft and murder in a spacious country house—have been repeated, in varying guises, throughout much of the avalanche of detective fiction that followed Collins's immensely popular 1868 novel.



purloined cup
Daily chart: Retail theft

Shoplifters of the world

Nov 11th 2009
Laptops Steal Netbooks' Thunder

Pricier, more powerful notebook computers are sucking some of the steam from netbooks, the low-priced darlings that helped fuel sales for the PC industry in the past two years.

From Economist.com

Where theft hits the retail trade hardest

INDIA'S retailers suffer the highest levels of theft, according to the “Global Retail Theft Barometer” survey of 41 countries. Losses from a combination of shoplifting, worker and supplier theft, and accounting errors amounted to 3% of all retail sales. This “shrinkage” cost global retailers almost $115 billion in 2009, up by 5.9% from the previous year. Much of this increase was caused by a rise in shoplifting, particularly in America and Europe. Branded clothes and fashion accessories were the most prized items globally, with items for the car and home-improvement goods a close second. In Europe the most pilfered grocery item is luxury cooked meat.

Alamy

Protests Flare in Tehran as Opposition Disputes Vote
By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHIThe streets of Iran’s capital erupted in the most intense protests in a decade as riot police officers clashed with demonstrators who accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of stealing the election.



Once the software was available, Foras started pushing carriers and handset makers to install it on their phones. Last year, Samsung Corp., trying to steal a march on market leader Nokia Corp., added an Irish-language handset to its line. "They're fabulous tools for us," says Mr. Mac Craith. "It facilitates the Irish language as a communications tool for every day -- not just in the classroom."

Home wrecker, husband stealer!

這是許多年來第一次進入BBC的學習英文網 聽一則短劇

Home wrecker, husband stealer!

真妙語

Definition

wrecker Show phonetics

noun [C]

US FOR breakdown truck

說笑

wrecker

(rĕk'ər) 

n.

1. One that wrecks or destroys: a wrecker of dreams.
2. 1. One who is in the business of demolishing old buildings.
   2. One who dismantles cars for salvage.
3. 1. A person, vehicle, or piece of equipment employed in recovering or removing wrecks, especially a truck with a hoist and towing apparatus used in towing disabled or wrecked vehicles.
   2. One that salvages wrecked cargo or parts.
4. 1. One who lures a vessel to destruction, as by a display of lights on a rocky coastline, in order to plunder it.
   2. A plunderer.

WordNet: stealer

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it

Synonym: thief

http://www.bbc.co.uk/china/learningenglish/flatmates/index.shtml

Episode 135: A mobile mystery
Alice:	So how was it?
Khalid:	I can't quite believe I'm saying this but it actually wasn't that bad!
Alice:	Really? That dentist must have been something special. Oh, sorry Khalid, excuse me. Oh it's Paul. Hello darling. Haven't heard from you in ages. What have you been up to?
Woman:	Who am I speaking to?
Alice:	I beg your pardon? Who am I? Who are you, more like it?
Woman:	No, I asked you first.
Alice:	No, you phoned me. So you must know who I am but I don't know who you are. You're calling from Dr Paul Laver's phone. Have you stolen it?
Woman:	If there's any stealing going on, it's you who's doing it.
Alice:	What are you talking about?
Woman:	Home wrecker, husband stealer!
Alice:	Mrs L

steal a march
Gain an advantage over unexpectedly or secretly, as in Macy's stole a march on their rival department store with their Thanksgiving Day parade.
This metaphoric expression comes from medieval warfare, where a march was the distance an army could travel in a day. By quietly marching at night, a force could surprise and overtake the enemy at daybreak. Its figurative use dates from the second half of the 1700s.
Use or appropriate another's idea, especially to one's advantage, as in It was Harold's idea but they stole his thunder and turned it into a massive advertising campaign without giving him credit. This idiom comes from an actual incident in which playwright and critic John Dennis (1657-1734) devised a "thunder machine" (by rattling a sheet of tin backstage) for his play, Appius and Virginia (1709), and a few days later discovered the same device being used in a performance of Macbeth, whereupon he declared, "They steal my thunder."

steam
n.

1. 1. The vapor phase of water.
   2. A mist of cooling water vapor.
2. 1. Pressurized water vapor used for heating, cooking, or to provide mechanical power.
   2. The power produced by a machine using pressurized water vapor.
   3. Steam heating.
3. Power; energy.

v., steamed, steam·ing, steams. v.intr.

1. To produce or emit steam.
2. To become or rise up as steam.
3. To become misted or covered with steam.
4. To move by means of steam power.
5. Informal. To become very angry; fume.

v.tr.
To expose to steam, as in cooking.

[Middle English steme, from Old English stēam.]

STEALv., stole (stōl), sto·len (stō'lən), steal·ing, steals. v.tr.

1. To take (the property of another) without right or permission.
2. To present or use (someone else's words or ideas) as one's own.
3. To get or take secretly or artfully: steal a look at a diary; steal the puck from an opponent.
4. To give or enjoy (a kiss) that is unexpected or unnoticed.
5. To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer: The magician's assistant stole the show with her comic antics.
6. Baseball. To advance safely to (another base) during the delivery of a pitch, without the aid of a base hit, walk, passed ball, or wild pitch.

v.intr.

1. To commit theft.
2. To move, happen, or elapse stealthily or unobtrusively.
3. Baseball. To steal a base.

n.

1. The act of stealing.
2. Slang. A bargain.
3. Baseball. A stolen base.
4. Basketball. An act of gaining possession of the ball from an opponent.

idiom:
steal (someone's) thunder

1. To use, appropriate, or preempt the use of another's idea, especially to one's own advantage and without consent by the originator.

[Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan.]

stealer steal'er n.

SYNONYMS steal, purloin, filch, snitch, pilfer, cop, hook, swipe, lift, pinch. These verbs mean to take another's property wrongfully, often surreptitiously. Steal is the most general: stole a car; steals research from colleagues. To purloin is to make off with something, often in a breach of trust: purloined the key to his cousin's safe-deposit box. Filch and snitch often suggest that what is stolen is of little value, while pilfer sometimes connotes theft of or in small quantities: filched towels from the hotel; snitch a cookie; pilfered fruit from the farmer. Cop, hook, and swipe frequently connote quick, furtive snatching or seizing: copped a necklace from the counter; planning to hook a fur coat; swiped a magazine from the rack. To lift is to take something surreptitiously and keep it for oneself: a pickpocket who lifts wallets on the subway. Pinch suggests stealing something by or as if by picking it up between the thumb and the fingers: pinched a dollar from his mother's purse.

pil·fer (pĭl'fər)
v., -fered, -fer·ing, -fers.

v.tr.
To steal (a small amount or item). See synonyms at steal.

v.intr.
To steal or filch.

[From Middle English pilfre, spoils, from Old French pelfre.]

pilferage pil'fer·age (-ĭj) n.
pilferer pil'fer·er n.(pər-loin', pûr'loin')


purloin

v., -loined, -loin·ing, -loins. v.tr.
To steal, often in a violation of trust. See synonyms at steal.

v.intr.
To commit theft.

[Middle English purloinen, to remove, from Anglo-Norman purloigner : pur-, away (from Latin prō-; see pro-¹) + loign, far (from Latin longē , from longus, long).]

purloiner pur·loin'er n.