embezzle
verb
Did you know?
English is full of verbs that mean “to steal” (such as pilfer, rob, swipe, plunder, filch, and thieve). But when it comes to stealing property (and in this context, money is a kind of property) that has been entrusted to you, embezzle wins the prize. The word most often refers to theft of company or government funds that one has charge of, and embezzlement is therefore a hallmark of white-collar crime—that is, crime committed by so-called white-collar workers. In the 15th century, around the time that embezzlement entered English (the ultimate root is Anglo-French besiller “to steal, plunder”), it would have also been possible to say that such plunderers “bezzled” company cash, but bezzle is now considered obsolete.
Examples of embezzle in a Sentence
Liam Quinn, People.com, 3 June 2025
Pullman was also convicted of embezzling and misusing SPAM funds for personal use by using a debit card tied to a SPAM bank account — paying for thousands of dollars of meals and travel for his romantic partner.
—Rick Sobey, Boston Herald, 3 June 2025
His firm Girardi Keese collapsed in late 2020 after Girardi was accused in a lawsuit of embezzling money meant for clients the firm was representing in litigation over an airplane crash in Indonesia.
—Tom Tapp, Deadline, 2 June 2025
Sisters spend over $844K on FL company credit cards in years-long scheme, feds say
In Florida, sisters Kimberly Lovitt and Amy Williams were sentenced to prison over embezzling more than $844,000 from their employer using company credit cards, federal prosecutors say.
—Miami Herald, 31 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for embezzle
Cite this Entry
“Embezzle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embezzle. Accessed 9 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
embezzle
verb
Legal Definition
embezzle
transitive verb
Anglo-French embeseiller to make away with, from en-, prefix stressing completion + beseller to snatch, misappropriate, from Old French, to destroy
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