rip off

rip off idiom
  1. Steal, as in They fired him when they caught him ripping off some of the merchandise.
  2. Cheat, defraud, as in These advertising claims have ripped off a great many consumers.
  3. Copy, plagiarize, as in He was sued for ripping off someone else's thesis. All three usages are slang from the second half of the 1900s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.