embezzle
verb /ɪmˈbezl/
/ɪmˈbezl/
[transitive, intransitive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they embezzle | /ɪmˈbezl/ /ɪmˈbezl/ |
| he / she / it embezzles | /ɪmˈbezlz/ /ɪmˈbezlz/ |
| past simple embezzled | /ɪmˈbezld/ /ɪmˈbezld/ |
| past participle embezzled | /ɪmˈbezld/ /ɪmˈbezld/ |
| -ing form embezzling | /ɪmˈbezlɪŋ/ /ɪmˈbezlɪŋ/ |
- embezzle (something) to steal money that you are responsible for or that belongs to your employer
- He was found guilty of embezzling $150 000 of public funds.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryEmbezzle is used with these nouns as the object:- fund
- money
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘steal’): from Anglo-Norman French embesiler, from besiler in the same sense (compare with Old French besillier ‘maltreat, ravage’), of unknown ultimate origin. The current sense dates from the late 16th cent.