Steal

To steal is the verb employed as meaning to commit larceny; and stealing, when used as a noun, is equivalent to and interchangeable with larceny, though less technical, and hence liable to be found in connections where the context shows an intended deviation from the strict sense. For the full meaning of these words see, therefore, Larceny. Stealing children and stealing heiresses are expressions found in the books for what ought to be called, if accuracy in use of words is at all to be maintained, kidnapping or abduction. Stealing, as a term of the law, does not apply to persons as subjects of theft, except when used in some figurative sense, or with reference to some local law of slavery, recognizing a slave as a species of mere property. Steal, in a statute, implies simple larceny.

Alexander v. State, 12 Tex. 540.

The natural and most obvious import of the word steal is that of felonious taking of property, or larceny. But it may be qualified by the context. The words "he stole my patterns" are actionable, as imputing larceny, if defendant used patterns in the sense of chattels constructed for moulding castings; but are not so, if he meant that the plaintiff fraudulently used his knowledge of the parts and proportions of a machine or invention belonging to defendant, — such knowledge as a man may carry away in memory, — to prepare imitations of them.

Bunnell v. Fiske, 11 Met. (Mass.) 551.