SKIP TO CONTENT

defalcate

Other forms: defalcating; defalcated

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."

Definitions of defalcate
  1. verb
    appropriate (as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use
    see moresee less
    types:
    fiddle
    commit fraud and steal from one's employer
    type of:
    steal
    take without the owner's consent
Cite this entry
Style:
MLA
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago

Copy citation
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘defalcate'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
Word Family