Can you explain what the term 'Steal Time' means in the Linux operating system?

In Linux, the term "Steal Time" refers to the amount of time a virtual machine or a CPU task has been waiting for the hypervisor (virtualizer) to allocate physical CPU time.

Simply put, if you run Linux in a virtual machine, Steal Time is the time when the virtual machine is ready to perform work but the physical CPU is busy with other virtual machines or hypervisor tasks. This time is "stolen" from your virtual machine.

Steal Time is displayed in CPU statistics (for example, in top or vmstat) and indicates how virtualization affects performance. High Steal Time means your virtual machine often idles, waiting for CPU time, which can negatively impact application performance.