adj. 1
Suitable or fit; proper; felicitous.
The headmaster wondered what an appropriate measure would be to make the pupil behave better.
v. 1
To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
Let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.
v. 2
To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.
A spot of ground is appropriated for a garden.

Related words

Forms

Past participle: appropriated
e.g. appropriated → taken, adopted, borrowed, assumed…

Appropriate, Withdrawing, Abstract, Purloin or Steal?

The central idea of withdrawing makes abstract in common speech a euphemism for appropriate (unlawfully), purloin, steal.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

3 letters: fit¹, pat¹, apt¹, nip¹
4 letters: just¹, take¹, meet¹, crib¹
5 letters: right¹, allow², apply², steal¹, adopt², seize¹, pinch¹, swipe¹, usurp², filch¹, licit
6 letters: likely², proper², assume², suited², borrow², assign², snatch¹, devote², seemly
7 letters: reserve², capture², adapted³, fitting², conquer², germane², earmark², purloin²
8 letters: relevant³, suitable³, abstract², peculiar³, discreet², allocate³, apposite, embezzle³
9 letters: pertinent³, agreeable⁴, befitting³, opportune³, sequester³, apportion³, congruous
10 letters: particular⁴, applicable⁴, assimilate⁴, confiscate³, felicitous⁴
11 letters: impropriate

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (allow² = 2 syllables).