defalcate

English

Etymology

1530s, in sense “to lop off”, from Medieval Latin dēfalcātus, perfect passive participle of dēfalcō (“cut or lop off”), from Latin dē (“off”) + falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”), from which also English falcate (“sickle-shaped”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): [ˈdɛfəɫkeɪt]

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

defalcate (third-person singular simple present defalcates, present participle defalcating, simple past and past participle defalcated)

1. (intransitive) To misappropriate funds; to embezzle.
2. (transitive, obsolete)
   1. To cut off (a part of something).
   2. To deduct or take away (a part of income, money, rents, etc.).
      • 1769, [Edmund Burke], Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 42:

        One would have thought the natural method in a plan of reformation vvould be, to take the preſent exiſting eſtimates as they ſtand; and then to ſhevv vvhat may be practicably and ſafely defalcated from them.

Derived terms

• defalcation

Related terms

• falcate

Translations

to misappropriate funds — see also embezzle

• Bulgarian: злоупотребявам (bg) (zloupotrebjavam)
• Finnish: kavaltaa (fi)
• Russian: расхища́ть (ru) (rasxiščátʹ), (преступно), растра́чивать (ru) (rastráčivatʹ),
• Spanish: desfalcar (es)

See also

• lop

Italian

Verb

defalcate

1. inflection of defalcare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative