APPROPRIATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does appropriation mean? 

• APPROPRIATION (noun)
  The noun APPROPRIATION has 3 senses:

1. money set aside (as by a legislature) for a specific purpose

2. incorporation by joining or uniting

3. a deliberate act of acquisition of something, often without the permission of the owner

  Familiarity information: APPROPRIATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• APPROPRIATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Money set aside (as by a legislature) for a specific purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("appropriation" is a kind of...):

money (the most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender)

Domain category:

general assembly; law-makers; legislative assembly; legislative body; legislature (persons who make or amend or repeal laws)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "appropriation"):

pork; pork barrel (a legislative appropriation designed to ingratiate legislators with their constituents)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Incorporation by joining or uniting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

annexation; appropriation

Hypernyms ("appropriation" is a kind of...):

incorporation (including by incorporating)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A deliberate act of acquisition of something, often without the permission of the owner

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

a person's appropriation of property belonging to another is dishonest

Hypernyms ("appropriation" is a kind of...):

acquiring; getting (the act of acquiring something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "appropriation"):

adoption; borrowing (the appropriation (of ideas or words etc) from another source)

pre-emption; preemption (a prior appropriation of something)

seizure (the taking possession of something by legal process)

requisition; sequestration (seizing property that belongs to someone else and holding it until profits pay the demand for which it was seized)

 Context examples 

The work you are doing requires great attention to detail and may be involved in the appropriation and management of budgets.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Sacramento gives us our appropriations and therefore we kowtow to Sacramento, and to the Board of Regents, and to the party press, or to the press of both parties.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)