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Glite Dictionary
misappropriated

misappropriated

8.4
Money or property someone takes and uses dishonestly when trusted to keep it
  • adjective
  • /ˌmɪsəˈproʊpriˌeɪtɪd/
  • Formal
translation icon : malversado
  • After the audit, it was confirmed that the charity had misappropriated money intended for community programs.

Examples

  • He was accused of having misappropriated company assets.

  • Investigators discovered a trail of misappropriated assets traced back to the charity's former director.

  • He was fired after the audit revealed he had used misappropriated company resources for personal projects.

  • The organization found that several accounts held misappropriated funds, triggering an investigation.

  • The funds were misappropriated by the treasurer.

  • The manager was found guilty of using misappropriated funds for his personal expenses.

  • The investigation revealed that the misappropriated donations were diverted to private accounts.

Synonyms

ill-gotten
vsmisappropriated
12 7.7

Money you get by stealing or cheating

relates to misuse of entrusted resources rather than general illegal obtaining
embezzled
vsmisappropriated
8.3

Money or property that someone trusted to manage secretly takes for themselves

is used dishonestly for personal purposes even when not taken outright
plundered
vsmisappropriated
6.1

Robbed and emptied of things during war or chaos

focuses on dishonest use by someone given care, not violent robbery

How Dishonest

misappropriated
  • Formal
8.4
embezzled
8.3

Surface Forms

misappropriated positive

Morphology

misappropriated = misappropriate (semi-transparent) = mis + appropriate + ed

The final step is a regular past-participial suffix '-ed' on the verb 'misappropriate'; however, learners who know 'appropriate' mainly as 'suitable' (adjective) may not infer the verb sense 'to take', reducing full transparency.

Etymology

Misappropriated breaks into mis- meaning 'wrongly' and appropriate meaning 'to make one's own', the same root you see in proper and property. So misappropriated means 'taken or used wrongly' for your own purposes, especially money or things you were trusted to look after.