impropriate

I1M3P3R1O1P3R1I1A1T1E1

verb

To appropriate for private use.

Scrabble 17

Meanings

verbimpropriate (third-person singular simple present impropriates, present participle impropriating, simple past and past participle impropriated)

present singular third person impropriates · participle present impropriating · participle past impropriated · past impropriated

  1. obsoletetransitiveTo appropriate for private use.

    And for the Pardon of the rest, that had stood against the King; the King, upon a second advice, thought it not fit it should pass by Parliament, the better (being matter of Grace) to impropriate the Thanks to himself […]

    1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC
  2. transitiveIn ecclesiastical law, to place (ecclesiastical property) under control or management of a layperson.
adjectiveimpropriate (not comparable)
  1. not comparableOf ecclesiastical property: placed under the control or management of a layperson.
    1 more example

    Mrs. Ellen Gulſton, Relict of Theodore Gulſton, Doctor of Phyſick, a very Learned Man, being poſſeſſed of the Impropriate Parſonage of Bardvvell in Suffolk, did firſt procure from the King leave to annex the ſame to the Vicarage, and to make it Preſentative; and having formerly the Donation of the Vicarage, ſhe gave them both thus annexed freely to St. John’s College in Oxon: Expreſſing many Godly Reaſons in a pious Letter of her Grant, to advance the Glory of God to her Povver, &c.

    1704, Henry Spelman, “An Account of the Worth of This Treatise, Taken Out of the Epistle to Sir Henry Spelman’s History of Tythes”, in De Non Temerandis Ecclesiis, Churches Not to Be Violated. A Tract of the Rights and Respects Due unto Churches. […], 6th edition, London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […]; republished in Two Tracts […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], 1704, →OCLC

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

  1. Latinin-
  2. Medieval Latinimpropriātus
  3. Englishimpropriate

From Medieval Latin impropriātus, past participle of impropriāre (“to take as one's own, appropriate”), from Latin in- + proprius (“one's own”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

impropriate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impropriate

MLA

“impropriate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impropriate. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “impropriate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impropriate.

Source: impropriate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.