Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Suitable for a particular person, condition, occasion, or place; fitting.
- v. To set apart for a specific use: appropriating funds for education.
- v. To take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself, often without permission: Lee appropriated my unread newspaper and never returned it.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To take to one's self in exclusion of others; claim or use as by an exclusive right: as, let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.
- In general, to take for any use; put to use.
- To set apart for or assign to a particular purpose or use, in exclusion of all other purposes or uses: as, Congress appropriated more money than was needed; to appropriate a spot of ground for a garden.
- In ecclesiastical law, to annex, as a benefice, to an ecclesiastical corporation, for its perpetual use.
- Set apart for a particular use or person; hence, belonging peculiarly; suitable; fit; befitting; proper.
- Synonyms Apt, becoming, in keeping, felicitous.
- n. Peculiar characteristic; attribute; proper function; property.
Wiktionary
- adj. obsolete Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.
- adj. Hence, belonging peculiarly; peculiar; suitable; fit; proper.
- adj. Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.
- v. transitive, archaic To make suitable; to suit. -- William Paley.
- v. transitive To take to one's self in exclusion of others; to claim or use as by an exclusive right; as, "let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit."
- v. transitive To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, in exclusion of all others;—with to or for; as, a spot of ground is appropriated for a garden; to appropriate money for the increase of the navy.
- v. transitive, UK, ecclesiastical, law To annex, as a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property. --Blackstone.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Set apart for a particular use or person. Hence: Belonging peculiarly; peculiar; suitable; fit; proper.
- v. To take to one's self in exclusion of others; to claim or use as by an exclusive right.
- v. To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, in exclusion of all others; -- with
to orfor - v. Archaic To make suitable; to suit.
- v. (Eng. Eccl. Law) To annex, as a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property.
- n. obsolete A property; attribute.
WordNet 3.0
- v. give or assign a resource to a particular person or cause
- adj. suitable for a particular person or place or condition etc
- v. take possession of by force, as after an invasion
Etymologies
- From Middle English appropriaten, from Latin appropriatus, past participle of approprio ("to make one's own"), from ad ("to") + proprio ("to make one's own"), from proprius ("one's own, private"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English appropriat, from Late Latin appropriātus, past participle of appropriāre, to make one's own : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin proprius, own; see per1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term "appropriate," like most institutional language, manages to give the appearance of clarity while retaining its ability to shift its focus as needed.”
“HEMMER: Is the title appropriate, "Hollywood Animal?”
“In the search for new strategies many people have begun to reflect on elementary technologies; the term appropriate technology has become a buzzword.”
“Development workers often use the term appropriate technology to refer to practical, simple THINGS - such as tools, instruments, or machines - that people can make, use, and repair themselves using local resources.”
“The term appropriate technology has been used to mean many things.”
“That indeed makes the title appropriate, but does not relieve the atrocity of the plot.”
“Is the title appropriate if CA didn't actually deny something that wasn't applied for, assuming the first article is correct.”
“Didn't take long to forget the term appropriate post did it scuba.”
“Saturday's White House Statement also said President Obama and Chancellor Merkel discussed what it called appropriate and effective ways for the international community to respond.”
Voice of America: Obama Calls for Gadhafi's Immediate Departure
“The way Sarah selectively decides which use of the r-word appropriate is exactly like the way black people use the n-word.”
Think Progress » Palin says she’s fine with Limbaugh’s use of the ‘r-word.’
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘appropriate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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Grade 4
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancrstor, ancestor, annual, apparent, appropriate, arena, arrest and 29 more...
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Culture Jamming
appropriate, subvertise, adbust, detournement, carnivalesque, remix, mashup, critical, protest, subvertisement, adbusting, disrupt and 47 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1856 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for appropriate.

oroboros ApPropriaTe Apr 24, 2008
oroboros Appropriate funds; approriate conduct Nov 21, 2007
librarymistress I like this word since hearing it in a song by Alanis Morissette (All I really want): "My sweater is on backwards and inside out. And you say how appropriate"... Oct 29, 2007