Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK black) to steal; thus t’iefing/tiefing/teefing n. and adj., stealing.

1793		J.B. Moreton West India Customs and Manners 153: If me want for go in a Congo, / Me can’t go there! / Since dem tief me from my tatta, / Me can’t go there!
1828		Marly; Planter’s Life in Jamaica 40: Him no tief from Massa, him take from Massa.
1833		T. Foulks Eighteen Months in Jamaica 472: Chantoba will tell Cooba how Quaw teifed [sic] her fattest hog.
1862		Capt. Clutterbuck’s Champagne 143: De busha no tief nuttin’ hisself, and no allow nobody else for tief nuttin’.
1894		T. Banbury Jamaica Superstitions 11: Alla warra you do, no lie, no tief, no swa.
1907		‘Yung-Kyum-Pyung’ in W. Jekyll Jam. Song and Story 12: Sometime him gone run ’pon him rope an tief cow fe him wife.
1913		H. De Lisser Jane’s Career (1971) 58: De mallatta ooman vex because she can’t tief me.
1922		(con. late 19C) A. Gonzales Black Border 63: Some dem Macfussn’nbil nigguh t’ief one new shu’t off me back.
1939		A. Durie One Jamaica Gal 32: Wasn’t it you t’ief bikkles from Busha Nelson fe send you mudder?
1942		L. Bennett ‘Sweepstake’ in Jamaica Dialect Verses 29: Dat teefin Charlie rab me.
1952		S. Selvon ‘Calypsonian’ in Bim V 17 in Selvon (1989) 151: If you tiefing, you might as well tief big.
1966		L. Bennett Auntie Roachy Sey (2003) 150: When yuh llow dawg fi tase fowl egg, him nyam de very shell an all’, an im never stop tief egg so till him dead. Mmmm.
1976		S. Naipaul Adventures of Gurudeva 52: You din go for t’iefing; you went for fighting. No shame in that.
1983		V. Bloom ‘Wat A Rain’ in Touch Mi, Tell Mi 18: For Jacob tief mi one goat kid.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 161: I teefed Koom’s money.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 38: Look, man, if I wanted to t’ief anything, I would of done.
2001		(ref. to 1950s) M. Kram Ghosts of Manila 57: A white store had a parrot that sang ‘Niggers teefing. Niggers teefing.’ Teefing meant stealing.
2005		(con. c.1945) A. Wheatle Island Songs (2006) 49: Somebody t’ief de collection money.
2011		S. Kelman Pigeon English 4: Shall I t’ief them? He don’t need ’em no more.
2016		1011 ‘Next Up?’ 🎵 Like, bros got a thing for dargs, teefing cats I ain’t talking no pets.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 40: A lighter we teefed from our mother’s handbag.