Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To take (money one has been entrusted with) for personal use.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.

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

  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb obsolete To misappropriate; to waste; to dissipate in extravagance.

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

  • verb law, business To steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from one's employer.

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

  • verb appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English embesilen, from Anglo-Norman enbesiler : Old French en-, intensive pref.; see en– + Old French besillier, to ravage.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1469, from Anglo-Norman embesiler ("to steal, cause to disappear") (1305), from Old French besillier ("torment, destroy, gouge"), of unknown origin.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word embezzle.

Examples

  • Further down the translator appears to have mislaid the word embezzle:

    Blue-stained translations? Michael Turton 2009

  • Further down the translator appears to have mislaid the word embezzle:

    Archive 2009-01-01 Michael Turton 2009

  • 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.

    Desert Diva 2008

  • 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?

    Randy Cohen - An interview with author 2010

  • 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.

    Md. woman sentenced for wire fraud Washington Post editors 2010

  • 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 2009

  • One of the things he did was embezzle funds, more or less, to fund his romantic international tryst.

    Business as usual for embattled South Carolina governor 2009

  • 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.

    A Frugal Family Rich in Satire Paul Levy 2011

  • 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 latest hiring hurdle: your credit history Post 2010

  • 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."

    Looking dictators in the pocketbook 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.