appropriator

ap·pro·pri·ate

(ə-prō′prē-ĭt)

adj.

Suitable for a particular person, condition, occasion, or place; fitting.

tr.v. (-āt′) ap·pro·pri·at·ed, ap·pro·pri·at·ing, ap·pro·pri·ates

1. To set apart for a specific use: appropriating funds for education.

2. To take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself, often without permission: My coworker appropriated my unread newspaper.

[Middle English appropriat, from Late Latin appropriātus, past participle of appropriāre, to make one's own : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin proprius, own; see per in Indo-European roots.]

ap·pro′pri·ate·ly adv.

ap·pro′pri·ate·ness n.

ap·pro′pri·a′tive (-ā′tĭv) adj.

ap·pro′pri·a′tor n.

Synonyms: appropriate, arrogate, commandeer, confiscate
These verbs mean to seize for oneself or as one's right: appropriated the family car; arrogated the chair at the head of the table; commandeered a plane for the escape; confiscating stolen property. See Also Synonyms at allocate.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

appropriator - someone who takes for his or her own use (especially without permission)

acquirer - a person who acquires something (usually permanently)

kleptomaniac - someone with an irrational urge to steal in the absence of an economic motive

poacher - someone who hunts or fishes illegally on the property of another

preemptor, pre-emptor - someone who acquires land by preemption

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References in classic literature ?

Verily, an appropriator of all values must such bestowing love become; but healthy and holy, call I this selfishness.--

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He knew very well that he was the proprietor or appropriator of the money, which, according to all proper calculation, ought to have fallen to his younger brother, and he had, we may be sure, some secret pangs of remorse within him, which warned him that he ought to perform some act of justice, or, let us say, compensation, towards these disappointed relations.

View in context

And like many of his contemporaries he is an appropriator for whom styles exist as ready-made opportunities for sophisticated play--although it is clear that Dunham is playing for keeps.

Slow burn

The association has the ear of at least one appropriator, Rep.

Role of unmanned aircraft questioned

Amplifying the effects of De Palma's constant doubling, he appropriates the work of the master appropriator. Check out www.bodydoublex.com, a site created for Body Double (X), his recent full-length remake of a popular lowbrow French melodrama from the mid-'70s, in which every role is played by an actor named Jean-Luc Verna.

TOP TEN

If Semmel's older work asks to be reseen in the light of younger artists such as Lisa Yuskavage, so Shaver's resonates with the work of artists like Kiki Smith, Mike Kelley, and Gober himself (and, curiously, she comes off in some sense as an early appropriator).

ANNI ALBERS, ROBERT BECK, CADY NOLAND, JOAN SEMMEL, NANCY SHAVER

Clinton also added "meme appropriator" to the tail-end of his 160-character Twitter bio.

Bill Clinton parodies wife Hillary's Twitter avatar for April Fools' Day

Fattah is an appropriator on the Energy and Water Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

US congressman asks Argonne lab to belp Boeing sort out battery woes

Fattah is the lead Democratic Appropriator for NASA.

US Congressman asks NASA to help fix Boeing 787 technical problems

appropriation, an appropriator obtains a water right from the state for

Reforming a western institution: how expanding the productivity of water rights could lessen our water woes

While the Senate appropriator's numbers are far from final--the full Senate must also vote on the bill and then reconcile with an eventual House version--they provide the first glimpse so far of how the department's request might fare on the Hill.

United States : Senator appropriators urge 'proven technologies' for border but mostly fund the DHS technology budget

Judging from his letters to illuminati ranging from Shaw to Du Maurier to Woolf, he was also catty (on Clifton Webb: "It must be rough to be orphaned at 71"), conflicted (he almost accepted Garbo's marriage proposal), opportunistic (why not, when his correspondents included Churchill and Mountbatten) and a master appropriator, even going so far as to underline words in the manner of Queen Victoria.