The act of stealing merchandise from a store without paying for it.
Compound of 'shop' and 'lifting,' using 'lift' in the older sense meaning 'to steal' or 'to take unlawfully.' This term became common in the 20th century as retail stores expanded and organized theft became more prevalent.
Shoplifting is actually an invention of modern retail—it couldn't exist before the 1850s self-service store model, so this 'crime' is really a product of how we changed shopping, not of human nature changing!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.