Hit out the night before and steal (6)
I believe the answer is:
thieve
'steal' is the definition.
(I know that thieve is a more specific form of the action steal)
'hit out the night before' is the wordplay.
'hit out' becomes 'thi' (anagram of 'hit').
'the night before' becomes 'eve' (eve can mean the night before something).
'thi'+'eve'='THIEVE'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for thieve that I've seen before include "Pilfer" , "appropriate" , "Pinch" , "Steal things" , "Rob" .)