Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To take (money, for example) for one's own use in violation of a trust.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To weaken; diminish the power or extent of.
- To waste or dissipate in extravagance; misappropriate or misspend.
- To steal slyly; purloin; filch; make off with.
- To appropriate fraudulently to one's own use, as what is intrusted to one's care; apply to one's private use by a breach of trust, as a clerk or servant who misappropriates his employer's money or valuables.
- To confuse; amaze.
Wiktionary
- v. law, business To steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from one's employer.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To appropriate fraudulently to one's own use, as property intrusted to one's care; to apply to one's private uses by a breach of trust.
- v. obsolete To misappropriate; to waste; to dissipate in extravagance.
WordNet 3.0
- v. appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use
Etymologies
- 1469, from Anglo-Norman embesiler ("to steal, cause to disappear") (1305), from Old French besillier ("torment, destroy, gouge"), of unknown origin. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English embesilen, from Anglo-Norman enbesiler : Old French en-, intensive pref.; see en-1 + Old French besillier, to ravage. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Further down the translator appears to have mislaid the word embezzle:”
“I'm going to give to agencies at the local level that don't slice off a goodly amount for "administrative fees" and have little opportunity to "embezzle" the money.”
“Are you saying that Socialism/Welfare states don't defraud, mislead, and embezzle?”
First on the Ticker: RNC blasts Obama's stimulus in new video
“One of the things he did was embezzle funds, more or less, to fund his romantic international tryst.”
“I couldn't find any independent research that says yes, if a person has lousy credit, he or she is more likely to embezzle money or accept bribes.”
The Washington Post: The latest hiring hurdle: your credit history
“Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey said: "It cannot be that right at our door some people embezzle state funds and put them into their own pocket.”
“Federal prosecutors say a Brunswick woman has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for wire fraud in a plot to embezzle more than $700,000 from her employer.”
“Of course, I also receive a steady flow of letters from those who know they are contemplating doing something very bad indeed, but want me to endorse it: I'm planning to embezzle some money at work, but my company is stinking rich, and my boss wears unattractive jackets, and I myself am a very handsome fellow, so isn't it okay?”
“In the first of many surprises, Luke pleads with his brother to consider the welfare of, and show charity to, those in debt to him; but he also urges his brother's gentlemen-apprentices to embezzle from him.”
“She is accused of attempting to embezzle $405 million from the state while heading a gas company in the 1990s, charges she denies.”
The Wall Street Journal: Ukraine's President Takes Defiant Stance
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘embezzle’.
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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Thievery
synonymous with steal.
pinch, lift, pilfer, appropriate, bilk, abscond, burgle, usurp, purloin, shoplift, bite, five finger discount and 38 more...
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Lying, cheating, and stealing
subterfuge, chicanery, skulduggery, pilfer, purloin, bamboozle, bilk, gyp, hoodwink, swindle, hoax, dupe and 28 more...
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Verbages
puddle, kowtow, tessellate, defalcate, embezzle, enkindle, ablate, frivol, moonlight, tongue-tie, gobble, pettifog and 58 more...
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Thief Words
Words that deal with stealing and thievery!
steal, plunder, theif, robber, rob, take, kidnap, stole, take ownership, snatch, grab, hide and 19 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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Words To Use In Creative Writing
hag-ridden, light-heeled, wendigo, longshanks, fatuous, insipid, sodden, bulging, sycophantic, uncourtly, gauche, assuasive and 102 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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Loaded Dice
Off the straight and narrow; less than straight arrow.
chicanery, sophistry, pilfer, rook, diddle, fleece, grift, poach, rustle, pinch, abscond, steal and 140 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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GMAT
part of speech, frown, brow, immensely, immense, incomprehensible, toil, concision, concise, proper noun, hyphenated, dash and 190 more...
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Daily
Daily Vocab List
lull, pious, lurid, objurgate, insurgent, lewd, patio, onus, lampoon, geisha, larceny, maim and 206 more...
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List of words to expand my vocabulary
does what it says on the tin, and is severely needed.
indolent, insolent, idly, divulge, tattle, benign, roguish, daintily, idle, dowdy, sordid, wanton and 242 more...
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