Appropriate

/əˈpɹəʊ.pɹi.eɪt/ · verb

Meaning

(transitive) To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
2. (transitive) To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.
3. (transitive, British, ecclesiastical, law) To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).
4. (transitive, archaic) To make suitable to; to suit.
5. Suitable or fit; proper; felicitous.
6. Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.
7. (obsolete) Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.
8. Of an action or thing: morally good; positive.

Example Sentences

Let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.

"I promise you," said she, after a pause of some minutes, "to wear the last new dress you gave me, it is a triumph of taste!" Lord Marchmont bowed, and appropriated the compliment as if the taste had been his own, not the milliner's.

We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.

On the morning after the one-day strike, October 4, one of the Type 4s on crew-training, No. D169, was appropriated to head the 3 a.m. mail to Hull, as no steam locomotive had been lit up and the usual Hull Type 3 was not available; [...].

Loitering, panhandling, soliciting prostitution, graffiti writing―these activities [are claimed to] foster serious criminality. As a result, disorder in itself has become a harm that justifies the criminal sanction. By appropriating harm in this way, the order-maintenance approach to criminal justice has disarmed the traditional progressive 1960s response of "no harm."

A spot of ground is appropriated for a garden.

to appropriate money for the increase of the navy

2012, The Washington Post, David Nakamura and Tom Hamburger, "Put armed police in every school, NRA urges" "I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation," LaPierre said.

Synonyms for appropriate

Antonyms for appropriate

Related Words

Word Forms

• appropriates
• appropriating
• appropriated
• more appropriate
• most appropriate

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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