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Someone with an irrational urge to steal in the absence of an economic motive
Answer for the clue "Someone with an irrational urge to steal in the absence of an economic motive ", 12 letters:
kleptomaniac
Alternative clues for the word kleptomaniac
Word definitions for kleptomaniac in dictionaries
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES ▪ She must be some kind of kleptomaniac -- she can't go into a bar without coming out with a stack of glasses. EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ For about the hundredth time, I cursed whatever kleptomaniac curmudgeon had walked off ...
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1861; see kleptomania .
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Kleptomaniac \Klep`to*ma"ni*ac\, n. A person affected with kleptomania.
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. someone with an irrational urge to steal in the absence of an economic motive
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
alt. One who steals compulsively. n. One who steals compulsively.
Usage examples of kleptomaniac.
Yet this truly comic paper does not probably know that it is comic, any more than the kleptomaniac knows that he steals, or than John Milton knew he was a humorist when he wrote a hymn upon the circumcision, and spent his honeymoon in composing a treatise on divorce.
Cases have been recorded of clergymen who were kleptomaniacs and in one instance a dying victim stole the snuffbox of his confessor.
You used to call persons who stole, evidently without any rational motive, kleptomaniacs, and when the case was clear deemed it absurd to punish them as thieves.
It scares the amateurs and builds up a file of kleptomaniacs in their protective association.