🇬🇧 Burgle meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

To burgle means to secretly and illegally go into a building, like a house or a shop, when you are not allowed to be there, and steal things that do not belong to you. It usually happens when no one is looking, and it is against the law.

I watched my baby cousin carefully burgle my fries one by one while pretending to admire the ceiling.

The ghost tried to burgle the pantry, but its hand went right through the cookie jar.

The superhero caught a villain trying to burgle the bank, so he wrapped him up in toilet paper like a confused mummy.

The raccoon tried to burgle our kitchen by crawling through the cat flap and stealing all the marshmallows.

In British English, people say someone "burgles" a house; in American English, they usually say someone "burglarizes" it—either way, it still means sneaking in to steal and still gets you in the same big trouble.

A cat sees a man try to burgle a house at night. He slips to the open window to burgle the desk. The cat jumps, claws at his hand; he drops the watch. He tries to burgle the lamp, then to burgle the box, but the dog barks. The man runs away and will never burgle again.

This word is at the B2 level, which means it’s used in more complex conversations and texts. It helps you discuss abstract ideas, express opinions clearly, and engage in discussions on a variety of topics, both personal and professional.

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