appropriation Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun money set aside (as by a legislature) for a specific purpose
  2. noun incorporation by joining or uniting
    annexation.
  3. noun a deliberate act of acquisition of something, often without the permission of the owner
    • the necessary funds were obtained by the government's appropriation of the company's operating unit
    • a person's appropriation of property belonging to another is dishonest

WordNet

Ap*pro`pri*a"tion noun
Etymology
L. appropriatio: cf. F. appropriation.
Definitions
  1. The act of setting apart or assigning to a particular use or person, or of taking to one's self, in exclusion of all others; application to a special use or purpose, as of a piece of ground for a park, or of money to carry out some object.
  2. Anything, especially money, thus set apart.
    The Commons watched carefully over the appropriation. Macaulay.
  3. (Law) (a) The severing or sequestering of a benefice to the perpetual use of a spiritual corporation. Blackstone. (b) The application of payment of money by a debtor to his creditor, to one of several debts which are due from the former to the latter. Chitty.

Webster 1913