To cut off; to take away or deduct a part of (money, rents, income, etc.).
verb
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Origin of defalcate
1530s, in sense “to lop off”, from Medieval Latin dēfalcātus, perfect passive participle of dēfalcō (“cut or lop off”), from Latindē (“off”) + falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”), from which also English falcate (“sickle-shaped”).