377. Jatten

to steal, to nick, to pinch [verb] [jatte, gejat] [‘ja-tun’] Iconspeaker_klein

"Jatten" is used informally. It is also the plural of "jat", and then has the meaning of "hands", but again informally.

Examples:
"Zo, die fiets is gloednieuw! Pas maar op dat hij niet gejat wordt!"
("My, that bicycle is brand-new! You had better pay attention that it is not stolen!")

"Hé, wat is er gebeurd?" – "Mijn portemonnee is gejat in de tram."
("Hey, what happened?" – "My wallet was stolen in the tram.")

"Kijk maar uit in de trein, tegenwoordig jatten ze je laptop zonder dat je het doorhebt!"
("You’d better watch out on the train, these days they steal your laptop without you noticing it!" Note the verb "doorhebben": to see (through), to be on to, …")

Expression:

"Beter goed gejat dan slecht bedacht": populistic expression saying
that it’s better to copy something well, than to have a bad idea.

Related words:

– "Jatmoos": pincher, swiper.
– "Dief": thief.