Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of appropriating.
  • noun Something appropriated, especially public funds set aside for a specific purpose.
  • noun A legislative act authorizing the expenditure of a designated amount of public funds for a specific purpose.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of appropriating, setting apart, or assigning to a particular use or person in exclusion of all others; application to a special use or purpose; specifically, an act of a legislature authorizing money to be paid from the treasury for a special use.
  • noun Anything appropriated or set apart for a special purpose, as money.
  • noun . Acquisition; addition.
  • noun In law: The annexing or setting apart of a benefice to the perpetual use of a spiritual corporation.
  • noun The determining to which of several debts a sum of money paid shall be applied.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of setting apart or assigning to a particular use or person, or of taking to one's self, in exclusion of all others; application to a special use or purpose, as of a piece of ground for a park, or of money to carry out some object.
  • noun Anything, especially money, thus set apart.
  • noun The severing or sequestering of a benefice to the perpetual use of a spiritual corporation. Blackstone.
  • noun The application of payment of money by a debtor to his creditor, to one of several debts which are due from the former to the latter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An act or instance of appropriating
  • noun That which is appropriated
  • noun public funds set aside for a specific purpose
  • noun art the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work
  • noun sociology the assimilation of concepts into a governing framework

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun money set aside (as by a legislature) for a specific purpose
  • noun incorporation by joining or uniting
  • noun a deliberate act of acquisition of something, often without the permission of the owner

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Artists have, of course, been sticky-fingered for ages, long before the term "appropriation art" was ushered into the lexicon to describe the Pictures Generation.

    The New Yorker The New Yorker 2011

  • In postmodern ideals, this kind of appropriation is - well, appropriate, fitting, part of the continual process we all go through of assimilating culture and creating new culture based on that assimilation.

    Borges: Pathways of the (Postmodern) Mind Heather McDougal 2009

  • In postmodern ideals, this kind of appropriation is - well, appropriate, fitting, part of the continual process we all go through of assimilating culture and creating new culture based on that assimilation.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Heather McDougal 2009

  • The appropriation from the central budget in this regard totaled 725.3 billion yuan, an increase of 21.8 percent over the previous year.

    Heidiminx: PROPAGANDA: PR With an Oppressive Agenda Heidiminx 2010

  • Traditional IP law: private appropriation is a precondition for production.

    Archive 2009-10-01 Rebecca Tushnet 2009

  • The Texas Board of Medical Examiners was so overwhelmed with new physician applications it had to acquire a special appropriation from the legislature to hire more personnel.

    Curbing medical lawsuits: What Obama really means 2009

  • Lifting the tuition cap would let universities break even with fewer public handouts, allowing schools to expand, if they so desire, without first seeking an appropriation from the government to do so.

    The Price of Knowledge 2010

  • Although appropriation is an old artistic technique, it is becoming much more common in our media-rich culture, and I would suggest that the growing importance of appropriation is a natural evolution in a society where we are constantly bombarded with images and sound bites.

    2009 June : Law is Cool 2009

  • That's because state law prevents any sort of payments – even IOUs – without an appropriation from the Legislature, Jordan said.

    California Budget Four Months Late AP 2010

  • That's because state law prevents any sort of payments – even IOUs – without an appropriation from the Legislature, Jordan said.

    California Budget Four Months Late AP 2010

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