What people who either can't write or are too lazy do whenever a paper is due. Any usage of someone else's writing as one's own is plagiarism, no matter how cleverly disguised (or not) it is.

Perhaps the most common way is to search for or download existing papers, cut and paste, change the wording superficially and scramble it a little, and turn it in as your own. Other common methods are to simply copy other students' work in one's class, changing it superficially, or to download or even buy papers online.

Any way you do it, it's a reprehensible practice that can, and should get you in big trouble. There are known cases where students have been held back a year, or even expelled. Unfortunately, plagiarism still seems to be a growing problem, and students usually get away with it.

(note: this entry written by a student)
Student: Why am I getting an A- for this paper?
Teacher: Because it matches three other students' as well as wikipedia.
Student: No way! I didn't do it!
Student: And you didn't prohibit it in the syllabus!
Teacher: sighs I ought to make you rewrite it, but-
Student: I'll sue you!

plagiarism
by spinningtabletop May 23, 2008
Get the plagiarism mug.
To pay homage without acknowledging the source.
All writers are in some way or another plagiarists. Some are just better at it than others.
by Killing Kittens June 9, 2004
Get the plagiarism mug.
Intellectual copyright theft of the worst kind, or passing off; a ripe forgery in the literary sphere; taking something one took the time and trouble to write out again in a slightly different form and claiming it as one’s own inimitable work as coming from the sweat of one’s brow, and so then, in some vital respect, it must be one’s own work, if only because if one took the time and trouble to do it again in a slightly different way then it must be one’s own intellectual copyright material to do with as one wishes, and so legally, in consequence, it is therefore still intellectual theft from its original owner, and decidedly so also, but then becomes serious only if it is found out.
It was not that the author disagreed with what was written one jot, as he has written it himself, it was that someone else had taken it and published it in his own name, which was plagiarism of the worst kind, and especially so since its original author had not been paid a penny for it either.
by Zamboozee March 18, 2011
Get the Plagiarism mug.
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous boundaries.
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous boundaries.
by Red~ September 19, 2011
Get the plagiarism mug.
From Wikipedia: "is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship or incorporating material from someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into ones own without adequate acknowledgment."

What I'm doing is not plagiarism because I acknowledged Wikipedia as a direct source of the information and I quoted what I took from the article. There's a world of difference.
-"You know, Family Guy wouldn't be accused of plagiarism if they just admitted to the fact that they copy The Simpsons all the time."
-"It'd still sucks ass, though."
-"I totally agree with you."
by bobertdude July 2, 2007
Get the plagiarism mug.
To copy something without paying notice to the actual writer.
The biggest example of plagiarism in TV is Family Guy, off of The Simpsons
by giggety April 21, 2006
Get the plagiarism mug.