the act or practice of stealing small quantities or articles
2.
the amount so stolen
pilferage in American English
(ˈpɪlfərɪdʒ)
noun
1.
the act or practice of pilfering
2.
something pilfered
pilferage in American English
(ˈpɪlfərɪdʒ)
noun
1.
the act or practice of pilfering; petty theft
2.
something that is pilfered
Word origin
[1620–30; pilfer + -age]This word is first recorded in the period 1620–30. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: contact, grommet, headline, hotbed, plug-age is a suffix typically forming mass or abstract nouns from various parts of speech,occurring originally in loanwords from French (voyage; courage) and productive in English with the meanings “aggregate” (coinage; peerage; trackage), “process” (coverage; breakage), “the outcome of” as either “the fact of” or “the physical effect or remains of”(seepage; wreckage; spoilage), “place of living or business” (parsonage; brokerage), “social standing or relationship” (bondage; marriage; patronage), and “quantity, measure, or charge” (footage; shortage; tonnage; towage)
Examples of 'pilferage' in a sentence
pilferage
The source blamed staffing cutbacks for the alarmingly high rate of pilferage.