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misappropriate
verb
mis·ap·pro·pri·ate
ˌmi-sə-ˈprō-prē-ˌāt
misappropriated; misappropriating; misappropriates
: to appropriate wrongly (as by theft or embezzlement)
Synonyms
Examples of misappropriate in a Sentence
They accused him of misappropriating town funds.
a financial manager misappropriating funds from her clients' accounts
Recent Examples on the Web
The 1Malaysia Development Berhad corruption scandal consisted of Jho Low, his associate Eric Tan, and others allegedly stealing billions of dollars from the fund and misappropriating the money.
—Regina Cho, VIBE.com, 4 Oct. 2024
After the case was brought back to court a third time, jurors eventually found that 13 dolls among the line's 30 in total infringed on the trade dress of the OMG Girlz, as well as misappropriated their name, images, and likenesses.
—Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 24 Sep. 2024
The rapper and Xscape singer accused the toy company of misappropriating the girl group's name, image and likeness.
—Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY, 24 Sep. 2024
In May, a News/Media Alliance letter to the DOJ and FTC said:
Google has a history of flagrantly misappropriating publishers' content on its search results pages, as illustrated by the FTC's 2012 investigation into Google's scraping practices.
—Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, 6 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for misappropriate
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Word History
First Known Use
1825, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near misappropriate
Cite this Entry
“Misappropriate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misappropriate. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Kids Definition
misappropriate
verb
mis·ap·pro·pri·ate
ˌmis-ə-ˈprō-prē-ˌāt
: to appropriate wrongly
especially
: to take dishonestly for one's own use
Legal Definition
misappropriate
transitive verb
mis·ap·pro·pri·ate
ˌmi-sə-ˈprō-prē-ˌāt
: to appropriate wrongfully or unlawfully (as by theft or embezzlement)
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