What a fantastic word. I must try to use it one day.
I bet it's not in the Oxford English Dictionary though.
Steve.
It is. I just looked it up on my wife-the-poet's OED unabridged CD. I added the underlined bold.
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burgle, v.
("b3;g(@)l) [A back-formation from burglar n., of very recent appearance, though English law-Latin (1354) had a verb burgulQre of same meaning.]
a. intr. To follow the occupation of a burglar. b. trans. To break feloniously into the house of; to steal or rob
burglariously.
"1872 M. Collins Pr. Clarice I. iv. 63 The burglar who attempted to enter that room would never burgle again." "1874 Standard 14 Nov. 3 New words with which the American vocabulary has lately been enriched; to burgle, meaning to injure a person by breaking into his or her house." "1884 Blackw. Mag. 513/2, I burgled myself again in the night."
1884
1874
1872
Hence "burgled ppl. a., and "burgling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
"1880 Daily News 28 Oct. 5/3 Treachery seems to have been developed even in burgling circles." "1884 C. Dickens Dict. Lond. 28/3 A gentleman of the burgling persuasion." "1885 Graphic 14 Feb. 151/1 After the burgling is completed." "1886 Phelps Burglars in Par. vii. 117 Oh, said the mistress of the burgled cottage+to the policeman."
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