tief (plural tiefs or tieves)

1. Pronunciation spelling of thief.

tief (third-person singular simple present tiefs, present participle tiefing, simple past and past participle tiefed)

1. (dialect) To steal, to thieve.

• E-FIT, Feit, feti, IETF, Fite

From Middle High German tief, tiuf, going back to Old High German tiuf, tiof, inherited through Proto-West Germanic *deup and ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *deupaz, from Pre-Germanic *dʰewbʰnós, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ-.

Compare Dutch diep, Low German diep, deep, English deep, Danish dyb, Norwegian dyp, Icelandic djúpur.

• IPA^(key): /tiːf/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːf

tief (strong nominative masculine singular tiefer, comparative tiefer, superlative am tiefsten)

1. deep (having a long distance to the bottom; of bodies of water, wells, etc.)

   Antonyms: untief, flach

   Wie tief ist das Wasser? ― How deep is the water?

2. (figuratively) deep, profound (intense or significant)

   Antonym: oberflächlich

   tiefe Trauer ― profound grief

   Sie hat ein tiefes Verständnis der russischen Kultur. ― She has a deep understanding of Russian culture.

3. low (situated close to, or below, the ground)

   Antonym: hoch

   Du hast das Bild zu tief gehängt. ― You hung the picture too low.

4. (figuratively, Switzerland) low (small, not high in amount or quantity, value, etc.)

   Synonym: niedrig

   tiefere Abgaben ― lower taxes

German niedrig is a more generally applicable translation of English low. Tief can cover the meaning of niedrig in many contexts, but not vice versa.

• “tief” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “tief” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “tief” in Duden online

• IPA^(key): /ˈti̯ɛːf/

tiēf m

1. Old West Frisian form of thiāf

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009), An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 115