Definify.com

Definition 2024

burgle ‎(third-person singular simple present burgles, present participle burgling, simple past and past participle burgled)

(chiefly Australia, Britain, New Zealand) to commit burglary.
- 1868 February 13, Louisville Daily Courier, Louisvile, KY, page 4:
  The language grows apace. A "cablegram" has been received, and $400 have been "burgled."
- 1868, John Brougham, Much Ado About a Merchant of Venice, New York: Samuel French, page 13:
  Burgled his safe and bolted with the tin.
- 1870 February 5, “American Slangography”, in Punch, London, page 44:
  Conceive the Great Lexicographer admitting to his Dictionary such excrescencies as: "Burgle, verb active, To break into a dwelling-house,"
- 1872, M. Schele De Vere, Americanisms: The English of the New World, New York: Charles Scribner, page 587:
  Burglarize, to, a term creeping into journalism. ... The word has a dangerous rival in the shorter burgle.
- 1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Beryl Coronet”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2011:
  Well, I hope to goodness the house won’t be burgled during the night.
(Britain, sports) To take the ball legally from an opposing player.
- 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:
  And when scrum-half Ben Youngs, who had a poor game, was burgled by opposite number Irakli Abuseridze and the ball shipped down the line to Irakli Machkhaneli, it looked like Georgia had scored a try of their own, but the winger's foot was in touch.

to commit burglary