moonlight requisition

moonlight requisition (plural moonlight requisitions)

1. (military slang) Unauthorized taking of materiel; theft of supplies for use in one's own unit.
   • 1966, Margaret Craighill, “The Women's Army Corps”, in Robert Anderson; Albert Glass; Robert Bernucci; William Mullins, editors, Neuropsychiatry in World War II, volume 1, OCLC 928807473, page 468:

     They were clever in finding local material, such as parachutes, for making bedcovers or curtains, and so-called "moonlight requisitions" were sources of supply for material to make furniture.

2. (slang, euphemistic) Theft or receipt of stolen goods.
   • 1973, John Postlewait and Harry Knudson, “Some experiences in land aquisition for a land disposal system for sewage effluent”, in Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Recycling Municipal Sludges and Effluents on Land: July 9-13, 1973, Champaign, Illinois, Washington: Environmental Protection Agency, OCLC 1821012, pages 33-34:

     One problem that became apparent from almost the first acquisition, was that of vandalism and pilfering. It seemed that as soon as a party moved, the area "jungle telegraph" would alert those in the habit of making "moonlight requisitions" to become active.

• See Thesaurus:theft

moonlight requisition (third-person singular simple present moonlight requisitions, present participle moonlight requisitioning, simple past and past participle moonlight requisitioned)

1. (military slang) To steal or use materiel without authorization.
   • 1990, Clifton Bryant, “The social context”, in Deviant Behavior: Readings in the Sociology of Norm Violations, New York: Hemisphere, →ISBN, page 18:

     The soldier learns informally in his basic military training experience to "moonlight requisition" or steal that which his unit needs.

• See Thesaurus:steal