Library / English Dictionary

PECULATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use

Example:

The accountant embezzled thousands of dollars while working for the wealthy family

Synonyms:

defalcate; embezzle; malversate; misappropriate; peculate

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "peculate" is one way to...):

rip; rip off; steal (take without the owner's consent)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "peculate"):

fiddle (commit fraud and steal from one's employer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

peculation (the fraudulent appropriation of funds or property entrusted to your care but actually owned by someone else)

peculator (someone who violates a trust by taking (money) for his own use)

Credits