defalcate
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of defalcate
1530–40; < Medieval Latin dēfalcātus (past participle of dēfalcāre to cut off), equivalent to dē- de- + falcātus; see falcate
Explanation
To defalcate is to steal or misuse money from your employer. If a cashier defalcates a few dollars each day from the register, eventually their boss is going to notice that missing cash. To defalcate is essentially the same as to embezzle; both words describe the misuse of funds by someone who is responsible for them. A company accountant who helps himself to some extra cash each month is guilty of defalcation. If a mortgage company consolidates a customer's debt without telling them, that's another way to defalcate. The word originally meant "cut off," from the Latin falx, "sharp weapon or sickle."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Jest like a criminal he skipped, an' aimed to defalcate The Chewed-ear Jenkins Hirsute Propagation Syndicate.
From Rhymes of a Rolling Stone by Service, Robert W. (Robert William)
An embezzler can not defalcate in Nova Scotia, lightly skip into Manitoba and put both provinces to expense and technical trouble apprehending him.
From The Canadian Commonwealth by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)
No one can defalcate in this particular; no one can Texas-ize and be quit of his transgressions and his onward travel.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 Volume 23, Number 4 by Clark, Lewis Gaylord
The plasterers were hindered; the painters misunderstood orders; the paperers have defalcated, and the universe generally comes to a pause.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 57, July, 1862 by Various
Carlyle to Emerson Chelsea, London, 8 December, 1839 My Dear Emerson,—What a time since we have written to one another! was it you that defalcated?
From The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I by Carlyle, Thomas
Robespierre, on the extreme Left, with perhaps Petion and lean old Goupil, for the very Triumvirate has defalcated, are shrieking hoarse; drowned in Constitutional clamour.
From The French Revolution by Carlyle, Thomas
Roloff mentions Baron Schlubhut the defalcating Amtmann, hanged at Konigsberg without even a trial.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 10 by Carlyle, Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
