Taxonomy of meanings for 竊:　　

  • 竊 qiè (OC: tsheed MC: tsʰet) 千結切 入 廣韻：【盜也又淺也 】
    • STEAL
      • nabactstealing
      • vadNgiven to stealing
      • vt(oN)steal the determinate relevant (kind of) thing
      • vt[oN]engage in stealing; start stealing
      • vtoNsnatch away; misappropriate; illegally take for oneself
      • vtoNfigurativeget (a position etc) by inappropriate or illegal means
      • vtoNN=humansteal from, burgle
      • vtoNsubject=humansteal
      • vttoN1.+prep+N2steal N1 from N2
      • vtoNsteal things from NCH
      • grammaticalised, polite self-effacing: presume>DARE
        • vadVhumbly
        • vt+V[0]in polite speech: take the liberty of V-ing; humbly permit oneself to, humbly allow oneself to (NB 竊不敢...)
      • subject>THIEF
        • nthief
      • violently>ROB
        • territory>ANNEX
          • generalised>DAMAGE
            • vtoN(criminally) pervertCH
          • text>COPY
            • related feature>SECRET
              • vadVfurtively, secretly; surreptitiously; quietly without making an overt show of it
              • vtoNcausativecause to be secret> keep secretCH
              • action conducted when hidden>COPULATE
                • grammaticalised>PERSONALLY
                  • vadVin polite speech, and referring only to subjective verbs when used in formal contexts: personally
                  • vt[0] V[0]I flatter myself that I V; I take the liberty to V;CH

            Additional information about 竊

            說文解字:

              Criteria
            • THIEF

              1. The standard word for a professional or at least specialised thief is dào 盜. Dà dào 大盜 is a notorious professional thief, jù dào 巨盜 is a professional large scale robber.

              2. Zéi 賊 refers to a bandit or a villain who can be hired to commit crimes, and his villainy often consists in hired murder. It may or may not consist in robbery. See VILLAIN.

              3. Qiè 竊 is occasionally used to refer to a petty thief.

            • PERSONALLY

              1. The current word for doing something personally is zì 自 (ant.* rén 人 "others").

              2. Qīn 親 (ant.* jiè 藉 and píng 憑 "via others") emphasises that a person who might have chosen not to condescend to do something personally actually decided to do it, and the word naturally tends to be limited to subjects of a fairly high social status.

              3. Gōng 躬 refers to doing something oneself demonstratively, and the word emphasises the moral responsibility of the agent for what he or she does rather than (like jǐ 己 "he himself, rather than someone else") laying any contrastive stress on the fact that the agent and not someone else engages in the action concerned.

              4. Qiè 竊 is very often used in polite formal discourse to indicate subjectiveness of attitudes that are being submitted to a superior. Thus this word is highly limited in application and somewhat marginal in the group.

              5. Shēn 身 "in person" hovers between an adverbial and a nominal function and is sometimes hard to distinguish from the meaning "himself" classified under SELF, which is common in contrastive in parallelistic constructions.

            • STEAL

              1. The current general word for any form of stealing is qiè 竊 and this word in no way suggests that the person who steals is in fact a professional or habitual thief.

              2. Dào 盜 refers to a clandestine operation of stealing that may be on a fairly small scale, but typically by a person who specialises in stealing, a dào 盜 "thief".

              3. Rǎng 攘 refers specifically to an act of taking another's property from a place other than his own home.

              4. Tōu 偷 refers to stealthy and illicit enjoyment or sometimes misappropriation of something.

              Word relations
            • Epithet: (DARE)願/HOPE The general word for a hope or wish is yuàn 願 (ant. kǒng 恐 "be very much afraid that"), but the word tends to express a hope regarding what someone else might do.
            • Assoc: (STEAL)盜/STEAL Dào 盜 refers to a clandestine operation of stealing that may be on a fairly small scale, but typically by a person who specialises in stealing, a dào 盜 "thief".