to arrogate
1
9.9
- verb
- /ˈɛrəˌɡeɪt/
- Formal
:
usurpar
- The committee members arrogated to themselves the authority to make decisions without the board's approval.
- arrogate power
- arrogated the right
Have a a richly human life at all levels, but don't arrogate to yourself the determination of good and evil.
- Have a a richly human life at all levels, but don't arrogate to yourself the determination of good and evil.
- Essentially, we're going to have, when I say people usurp or arrogate or make hereditary their possessions, I'm talking about something that sounds abstract.
Examples
-
"A lukewarm minister," he grumbled, "makes people so," and thus, over the course of the spring, Ely had arrogated to himself the task of preaching "strict godliness" to his slumbering neighbors.
Academic text (2005) -
The ruling class arrogates to itself the control of programs "from a higher social level."
Academic text (1991) -
How did you arrogate to yourself the role of saviour?
-
If that's the case, who is it that gets the sort of rights and privileges that we would arrogate to ourselves?
-
I won't arrogate to advise you on matters of state.
Fiction book (1997) -
For in the contemporary play, the State has arrogated to itself the role of divinity.
Academic text (1994) -
In the first days of the crisis, the government in Beirut issued a statement critical of Hezbollah for arrogating the power to make war.
Academic text (2006) -
At the extreme, these notions form a neoimperial vision in which the United States arrogates to itself the global role of setting standards, determining threats, using force, and meting out justice.
Academic text (2002) -
The monitoring of classrooms for an outside organization that arrogates to itself the prerogative of determining accuracy from what is reported to it can only inhibit the process through which higher learning occurs and knowledge is advanced.
Academic text (2016) -
The Sufficiency Rule prevents any one state (e.g., the then-existing USSR) from arrogating all or nearly all of its group's allotments.
Academic text (1994)
Synonyms
588
3.4
To ask for and receive something you have a right to, like lost baggage
277
3.2
To take control of a place or person quickly, often by force
222
3.8
Gain control of a company, organization, or government
77
5.7
Take control of a group or position without proper authority
34
8.6
To take power or a position from someone without the right, often by force
18
4.4
Say you have a right to something like land or money
Antonyms
How Forceful
Surface Forms
Morphology
arrogate = ar + rogate
Although historically analyzable as ar- + rogate, the combining form 'rogate' is not a standalone English word and the prefix 'ar-' is a non‑productive Latin assimilated form, so learners cannot reliably infer the meaning from the parts.
Etymology
Arrogate comes from Latin parts ad- 'to' and rogare 'to ask', the same root you see in interrogate 'ask questions'. So to arrogate something is like 'asking for' or taking a right for yourself, often without the real right to do so.