colloq. or humorous. [A back-formation from BURGLAR, of very recent appearance, though English law-Latin (1354) had a verb burgulāre 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.
1867. Delaware Tribune, 14 March, 1/7. In St. Louis, burglars burgle by daylight.
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.
Hence Burgled ppl. a., and Burgling vbl. sb. 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. Mrs. Phelps, Burglars in Par., vii. 117. ‘Oh,’ said the mistress of the burgled cottage … to the policeman.
