Meanings
present singular third person embezzles · participle present embezzling · participle past embezzled · past embezzled
- businessTo steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from the organisation for which one works.
You let Dunsey have it, sir? And how long have you been so thick with Dunsey that you must collogue with him to embezzle my money?
1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC2 more examples
You waste your education in burglary. You should do one of two things. Either you should forge or you should embezzle. For my own part, I embezzle.
1903, H. G. Wells, “Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation”, in Twelve Stories and a DreamA major accident and embezzlement of its funds seem to have been the only disasters it escaped; and as to the latter, the most probable reason is that it never had any quantity of funds worth embezzling.
1959 October 28, Michael Robbins, “The Isle of Wight (Newport Junction) Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 721Synonyms: defalcate, have one's hand in the till, misappropriate, peculate, skim
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from the organisation for which one works.
More synonyms by meaning
verbappropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Frenchbesillier“to torment, destroy, gouge”
- Anglo-Normanembesiler
- Middle Englishembesilen
- Englishembezzle
From Middle English embesilen, from Anglo-Norman embesiler, embesillier, embeseillier (“to steal, cause to disappear”), from em- + Old French besillier (“to torment, destroy, gouge”), of unknown origin.
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic غَلَّ, اِخْتَلَسَ
- غَلَّ (ḡalla)to steal money that one has been trusted with
- اِخْتَلَسَ (iḵtalasa)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Bulgarian злоупотребявам
- злоупотребявам (zloupotrebjavam)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Catalan malversar
- malversarto steal money that one has been trusted with
Chinese Mandarin 挪用, 私吞
- 挪用 (nuóyòng)to steal money that one has been trusted with
- 私吞 (sītūn)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Czech zpronevěřit
- zpronevěřitto steal money that one has been trusted with
Danish begå underslæb
- begå underslæbto steal money that one has been trusted with
Dutch verduisteren
- verduisterento steal money that one has been trusted with
Esperanto malversacii
- malversaciito steal money that one has been trusted with
Finnish kavaltaa
- kavaltaato steal money that one has been trusted with
French détourner, divertir
- détournerto steal money that one has been trusted with
- divertirto steal money that one has been trusted with
German unterschlagen, veruntreuen
- unterschlagento steal money that one has been trusted with
- veruntreuento steal money that one has been trusted with
Greek υπεξαιρώ
- υπεξαιρώ (ypexairó)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Hebrew מעל
- מעל (ma'ál)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Hungarian sikkaszt, elsikkaszt
- sikkasztto steal money that one has been trusted with
- elsikkasztto steal money that one has been trusted with
- hűtlenül kezelto steal money that one has been trusted with
Irish cúigleáil
- cúigleáilto steal money that one has been trusted with
Italian malversare, commettere peculato
- malversareto steal money that one has been trusted with
- commettere peculatoto steal money that one has been trusted with
Korean 횡령하다
- 횡령하다 (hoengnyeong-hada)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Latin pecūlor
- pecūlorto steal money that one has been trusted with
Norwegian underslå
- underslåto steal money that one has been trusted with
Polish sprzeniewierzyć
- sprzeniewierzyćto steal money that one has been trusted with
Portuguese desviar
- desviarto steal money that one has been trusted with
Russian присва́ивать, присво́ить
- присва́ивать (prisváivatʹ)to steal money that one has been trusted with
- присво́ить (prisvóitʹ)to steal money that one has been trusted with
- расхища́ть (rasxiščátʹ)to steal money that one has been trusted with
- расхи́тить (rasxítitʹ)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Spanish malversar, desfalcar
- malversarto steal money that one has been trusted with
- desfalcarto steal money that one has been trusted with
- defalcarto steal money that one has been trusted with
- festinarto steal money that one has been trusted with
Swedish förskingra
- förskingrato steal money that one has been trusted with
Thai ยักยอก
- ยักยอก (yák-yɔ̂ɔk)to steal money that one has been trusted with
Turkish zimmetine geçirmek
- zimmetine geçirmekto steal money that one has been trusted with
Welsh embeslo
- embesloto steal money that one has been trusted with
Cite this entry
embezzle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/embezzle
“embezzle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/embezzle. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “embezzle,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/embezzle.
Source: embezzle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.