Peculate (verb)
pek-yu-layt
to steal or take dishonestly (money, especially public funds, or property entrusted to one’s care); embezzle.
First recorded in 1740–50; verb use of peculate “embezzlement” (now obsolete), from Latin past participle and noun pecūlātus “embezzled; embezzlement,” equivalent to pecūlā(rī) ) “to embezzle,” literally, “to make public property private” + -tus suffix of verbal action, derivative of pecu “wealth, livestock, movable property”
Example sentences
“No man ever paid a bribe for the handling of the public money, but to peculate from it.”
