Peculation Definition

noun
The fraudulent misuse of funds by one to whom they have been entrusted for purposes for which those funds were not intended, especially the misuser’s own benefit.
Webster's New World Law
Embezzle-ment, especially when done by a public official.
Webster's New World Law

(law, chiefly historical) The wrongful appropriation or embezzlement of shared or public property, usually by a person entrusted with the guardianship of that property.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Peculation

Noun

Singular:
peculation
Plural:
peculations

Origin of Peculation

  • From Latin peculatus (“embezzlement"), from past participle stem of peculor (“to defraud the public"), related to peculium (“property in cattle", "private property"), from pecu (“cattle", "money").

    From Wiktionary

Peculation Sentence Examples

  • The magistracy had been acquiring more and more the character of an oligarchy; all power was practically in the hands of a few closely-related families; and the gravest peculation and malversation took place without hindrance.

  • He was tried by a court of inquiry, who found that his conduct to natives had been "unjustifiable and oppressive," that he had used abusive language to his native officers and personal violence to his men, and that his system of accounts was "calculated to screen peculation and fraud."

  • The second governorship of Clive was marked by the transfer of the diwani or financial administration from the Mogul emperor to the Company, and by the enforcement of stringent regulations against the besetting sin of peculation.

  • The tahsildars check the accounts of the kabz-i-mals, and, if they discover peculation, send them at once to be dealt with by the chief official authorities of the Gaza (department); all the electors of a mukhtar are, ipso facto, joint sureties for him.

  • Maladministration and peculation of public moneys go hand in hand, without any vigorous measures being adopted to put a stop to the scandal.

More Sentences

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to peculation using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

PPEPEC

Words Ending With

NONION

Unscrambles

peculation

Words Starting With P and Ending With N

Starts With P & Ends With NStarts With PE & Ends With NStarts With P & Ends With ON

Word Length

10 Letter Words10 Letter Words Starting With P10 Letter Words Ending With N