Other forms: filching, filched
To filch is to steal something small and of little value. Filch a biscuit, filched from the drawer, caught filching.
The smallness is essential — filching is petty and half-forgivable, which is why the word is nearly comic. It is old slang and now slightly dated. Note pilfer, which means the same and is commoner; and that the further origin of the word is unknown.
1verbfilchTo steal something small and of little value.
“Someone had filched a pen from my desk while I was at lunch.”
filch is a petty stealing.
Middle English filchen means to pilfer. Its further origin is unknown.
Old English
fylċian — to marshal troops
Middle English
filchen — to pilfer, steal
English, today
filch
From Middle English filchen (“to pilfer, steal”). The further origin of the word is unknown, but it is likely from or related to Old English fylċian (“to marshal troops”) and Old English ġefylċe (“band of men, army, host”), which would make it also related to folk.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire