arrogate
Americanverb (used with object)
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arrogates,
present (3rd person singular)
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arrogated,
past participle, past
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arrogating
present participle
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to claim unwarrantably or presumptuously; assume or appropriate to oneself without right.
to arrogate the right to make decisions.
-
to attribute or assign to another; ascribe.
verb
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(tr) to claim or appropriate for oneself presumptuously or without justification
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(tr) to attribute or assign to another without justification
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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arrogationnoun
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arrogatornoun
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arrogativeadjective
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unarrogatedadjective
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unarrogatingadjective
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arrogatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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arrogatesimple
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arrogatessimple
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have arrogatedperfect
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has arrogatedperfect
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am arrogatingprogressive
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are arrogatingprogressive
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is arrogatingprogressive
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have been arrogatingperfect progressive
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has been arrogatingperfect progressive
Past
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arrogatedsimple
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had arrogatedperfect
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was arrogatingprogressive
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were arrogatingprogressive
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had been arrogatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of arrogate
1530–40; < Latin arrogātus appropriated, assumed, questioned (past participle of arrogāre ), equivalent to arrog- ( ar- ar- + rog ( āre ) to ask, propose) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To arrogate is to take over. When the teacher steps out of the classroom and some bossy student marches up to the front of the class and begins scolding the other kids? The student is trying to arrogate the teacher's authority. When someone takes control of something, often without permission, such as when a military general assumes the power of a country's government after getting rid of the previous leader, they arrogate power or control to themselves. Occasionally the verb arrogate means something like "assert one's right to," or take something that is deserved, but more often it implies a taking by force.
Vocabulary lists containing arrogate
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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:
“Shortly thereafter, John embarked on a series of steps to arrogate to himself complete control over Mr. Angelos’ assets.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2022
They are truly generative, an apt term for a novel that queries a selfish inventor, his damaged creature and science’s threat to arrogate creation to itself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2018
Judge Jackson said the action was “a stunning power for an agency to arrogate to itself” that the law did not support.
From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2012
But she became annoyed when the overbearing chief of staff seemed to arrogate presidential decision-making responsibilities to himself during Reagan's convalescence from cancer surgery in 1985.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was because the function belonged to all, that no man might arrogate it who was not commissioned to act on behalf of all.
From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus by G. A. Chadwick
The rapid team collapse was head-spinning news not only in Australia but also among worldwide fans of cricket, a sport that arrogates to itself a particular moral sanctimony.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2018
What is it that arrogates that authority to someone else?
From Time Magazine Archive
As such, it has been subject to attack time immemorial from every agency that fears new truth, or that arrogates to itself the exclusive possession of particular areas of truth.
From Time Magazine Archive
Where the Olympic Charter goes astray is on the very next page, on which the IOC arrogates for itself Supreme Authority.
From Time Magazine Archive
Especially is this necessary in relation to that attribute which, in common parlance, arrogates to itself the name that covers the vast sweep of all moral obligation and calls itself emphatically "morality."
From The Power of Womanhood, or Mothers and Sons A Book For Parents, And Those In Loco Parentis by Ellice Hopkins
Today, we have a priest who has disbanded the pastoral council and arrogated governance to himself and his staff.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 8, 2023
To Covington & Burling, the answer was clear: it lay with Congress, and, if Trump arrogated that power to himself, the firm was prepared to take on a lawsuit pro bono.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 24, 2018
He had arrogated to himself the privilege to call, and to assume the president would take his call.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2018
But journalists have arrogated it to themselves in disproportionate numbers.
From Washington Post ● May 4, 2018
Gregorio Leti is right in attributing all the evils that have since arisen from the excessive authority which the priests have arrogated over laymen, to this conduct of Philip II.
From The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII. by Juan Antonio Llorente
So, of course, it’s not just that he’s arrogating the piggy bank to himself.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2025
He’s also arrogating actual facts to himself, which makes this triply scary.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2025
Smile, if you will, at my presumption in arrogating the place of a feminine Arnold von Winkelried, breaking a path for our spiritual freedom through the lances of contempt and prejudice.
From Only a Girl: or, A Physician for the Soul. by Wilhelmine von Hillern
The regent, as was usually the case, arrogating authority and splendor, soon became excessively unpopular, and a conspiracy of the nobles was formed for his overthrow.
From The Empire of Russia by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
The Protestants, of course, charged him as arrogating the same spiritual authority with the popes.
From Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne
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.
