filch

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 30, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>filch</strong> &#149; \FILCH\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p>To filch something is to secretly or casually steal it. The word <em>filch</em> also usually, though not always, implies that what has been stolen is small or of little monetary value.</p> <p>// I couldn’t help but chuckle when I woke up to find my four-year-old daughter <em>filching</em> a cookie from the plate on the kitchen counter.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/filch">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“Distillery employees <em>filched</em> more than $100,000 of the most famous name in rare bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle, to resell, a 2013 caper that has been dubbed ‘Pappy<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-gate#dictionary-entry-4">gate</a>.’” — Justin Jouvenal, <em>The Washington Post</em>, 20 Sept. 2022</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>The award-winning 2019 video game <em>Untitled Goose Game</em>, in which players control the titular (or “un-titular”?) waterfowl through several levels of light and family-friendly mayhem, serves as an excellent primer on the meaning of <em>filch</em>. In fact, many of the game’s objectives involve waddling <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furtive">furtively</a> around a quaint little scene, such as a garden, and trying to avoid detection by humans while you <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pilfer">pilfer</a>, say, a pumpkin or a woolen hat. To filch is to steal something (usually, though not always, a small or relatively unimportant something) in secret. So why not just use <em>steal</em>? There’s often a distinct <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twang#dictionary-entry-3">twang</a> of humor or mischievousness in <em>filch</em> that’s n