Definitions

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

  • transitive & intransitive verb To embezzle (funds) or engage in embezzlement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Peculation.
  • To appropriate to one′ s own use money or goods intrusted to one′ s care; embezzle; pilfer; steal: originally, as in the Roman law, denoting embezzlement of moneys of the state.

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

  • intransitive verb To appropriate to one's own use the property of the public; to steal public moneys intrusted to one's care; to embezzle.

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

  • verb To embezzle

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

[Latin pecūlārī, pecūlāt-, from pecūlium, private property; see peku- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin peculatus.

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Examples

  • I actually carry a notebook and when someone provides an insight or suggestion I write it down and let it "peculate" to see if, how, and where it makes since and how to apply it if it is considered valuable and beneficial to the path I am walking.

    So...What's Next?!? 2008

  • The company has the financial heft to be an acquirer, and is nearly always mentioned as a potential buyer when analysts peculate about deals.

    GE Faces Hurdles in the Oil Patch Paul Glader 2010

  • The company has the financial heft to be an acquirer, and is nearly always mentioned as a potential buyer when analysts peculate about deals.

    GE Faces Hurdles in the Oil Patch Paul Glader 2010

  • The company has the financial heft to be an acquirer, and is nearly always mentioned as a potential buyer when analysts peculate about deals.

    GE Faces Hurdles in the Oil Patch Paul Glader 2010

  • Inhabit the voices, pushing the choices, falling as you make those noises, poised, moist, peculate and mutilate just to sedate the rate at which I debate.

    poeticdragon Diary Entry poeticdragon 2007

  • He is a most kind and indulgent master, and, provided his servants humor his peculiarities, flatter his vanity a little now and then, and do not peculate grossly on him before his face, they may manage him to perfection.

    John Bull 1914

  • It is true that the excellent chef began to peculate, but as his cuisine did not suffer, the result was not noticeable for a long period.

    The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1899

  • The former is counted by hundreds of taels; the latter, by thousands, especially where there is a temptation to peculate.

    The Awakening of China 1871

  • He is a most kind and indulgent master, and, provided his servants humor his peculiarities, flatter his vanity a little now and then, and do not peculate grossly on him before his face they may manage him to perfection.

    The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon Washington Irving 1821

  • That great man little liked that any one but himself should peculate in his dominions, and, in the end, M. de Talleyrand was obliged to quit the

    Recollections of Europe James Fenimore Cooper 1820

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