peculation

plural peculations

1. countablehistoricaluncountablelawThe wrongful appropriation or embezzlement of shared or public property, usually by a person entrusted with the guardianship of that property.

   [The Chief Magistrate] might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression.

   1787, “Impeachment of the Executive, [20 July] 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives; Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 10, 27 May 1787–3 March 1788, ed. Robert A. Rutland, Charles F. Hobson, William M. E. Rachal, and Frederika J. Teute. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977, p. 108

   5 more examples

   Sir Pitt Crawley (named after the great Commoner) was the son of Walpole Crawley, first Baronet, of the Tape and Sealing-Wax Office in the reign of George II., when he was impeached for peculation, as were a great number of other honest gentlemen of those days ...

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   They were obliged to show that they were working for a living, and had some honestly-acquired means of existence. All who could not do so were placed upon public works at low wages, and thus were kept from the temptation to peculation or other crimes, which the excitement of newly-acquired freedom, and disinclination to labour, might have led them into.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 13

   Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with irrefragable proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff.

   1885, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 20, in Nuttie's Father

   She considered herself engaged to be married to a Scotch propaganda officer who had been dismissed for peculation and gone home to sell cars.

   1989, Anthony Burgess, The Devil’s Mode

   It was a feature of Athens’ democratic constitution that at the end of their year in office Athenian officials had to submit an account of their service, financial and otherwise, to public scrutiny. Ephialtes took the opportunity to bring charges of peculation against the outgoing archons who were about to enter the Areopagus and succeeded in having them removed from that council.

   1990, Donald Kagan, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy, chapter 2: “Politician”, page 42 (Guild Publishing; CN 2239)