MISAPPROPRIATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does misappropriate mean? 

• MISAPPROPRIATE (verb)
  The verb MISAPPROPRIATE has 1 sense:

1. appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use

  Familiarity information: MISAPPROPRIATE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MISAPPROPRIATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they misappropriate    ... he / she / it misappropriates   
Past simple: misappropriated   
Past participle: misappropriated   
-ing form: misappropriating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

defalcate; embezzle; malversate; misappropriate; peculate

Context example:

The accountant embezzled thousands of dollars while working for the wealthy family

Hypernyms (to "misappropriate" is one way to...):

rip; rip off; steal (take without the owner's consent)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "misappropriate"):

fiddle (commit fraud and steal from one's employer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

misappropriation (the fraudulent appropriation of funds or property entrusted to your care but actually owned by someone else)

 Context examples 

“You believed it had been misappropriated by Mr. Wickfield?” said Traddles.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In one case, an absolutely different title, a misappropriate title, was substituted.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)