klauen

See also: Klauen

German

Etymology

From earlier kläuen, from Middle High German kleuen, klæwen, from Old High German klawēn, chlawēn, klawjan, from Proto-Germanic *klawjaną. Later remodelled after and related to Klaue (claw), that is “to grab with one’s claws”. The sense “to steal” originated in West Central German and Low Franconian, and is supposed to have been spread among soldiers during World War I.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈklaʊ̯ən/, /ˈklaʊ̯n/
  • (file)
  • Homophone: Klauen

Verb

klauen (third-person singular simple present klaut, past tense klaute, past participle geklaut, auxiliary haben)

  1. (somewhat informal) to steal

Usage notes

  • Klauen is the most common word for “to steal” in colloquial German. Written standard German generally prefers stehlen, although klauen is also seen here and there.
  • The syntactical construction is identical to that of stehlen (see there).

Conjugation

Synonyms

Further reading

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