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Glite Dictionary
🔄 To reclaim meaning 💸 To reassign money
to reappropriate

to reappropriate

7.5
To give money or resources again for a different purpose
  • verb
  • /ˌriːəˈproʊpriˌeɪt/
  • Formal
translation icon : reaprobar
  • The city council decided to reappropriate funds from the construction budget to improve local schools.

Examples

  • At a time when resources are reappropriated for subjects most susceptible to rigid accountability measures, other subjects—the arts too often among them—struggle to maintain funding.

    Academic text (2005)

  • "Mayor Tom Murphy's leadership led "to a building boom dubbed as Renaissance 3, "which reappropriated industrial land, "transforming the eco... the economic base... "from steel to medicine, finance, and technology."

    Anything's Possible (2022)

  • To help the community, they planned to reappropriate funds originally designated for tourism promotion to support local businesses affected by the pandemic.

  • After reviewing the proposals, the board agreed to reappropriate last year's surplus budget for new public health initiatives.

Synonyms

to redistribute
vsto reappropriate
42 4.6

To give out things like money or jobs again so they are fairer

is focused on official reallocation rather than social fairness goals
to repurpose
vsto reappropriate
19 4.2

To use something for a new purpose instead of its original one

is about formally reallocating funds, not simply changing how items are used
to reallocate
vsto reappropriate
7 5.9

To move something again to a different place or use

is the formal reassignment of monetary resources often changing their purpose
to reapportion
vsto reappropriate
  • Formal
1 8.2

To give out something again to match a new situation

is a formal reassignment that often redirects funds to new purposes
to reprogram
vsto reappropriate
  • Formal
1 4.7

Move money or resources to a different purpose in a budget

is an official reassignment of funds often across purposes or budgets
to rebudget
vsto reappropriate
4.8

To change a plan for using money when costs change

is an official reassignment of funds rather than just planning the budget

How Official

to commandeer
34 8.5
to reappropriate
  • Formal
7.5
to reassign
74 4.1
shift
363 3.5

Surface Forms

reappropriate infinitive
reappropriated past
reappropriated past participle
reappropriating present participle
reappropriates third person singular

Morphology

reappropriate = appropriate (transparent) = re + appropriate

This is a standard use of re- meaning 'again', so learners who know the budgeting sense of 'appropriate' can readily infer 'appropriate again'.

Etymology

Reappropriate breaks into re- 'again' and appropriate 'to take as your own', the same idea you see in property. So, to reappropriate funds is to 'assign or move them again', like moving money from one jar to another for a different purpose.