appropriate

---

Pronunciation

Adjective

• (RP) enPR əprō'priĭt, IPA: /əˈpɹəʊ.pɹiː.ɪt/, /əˈpɹəʊ.pɹiː.ət/
• (America) enPR əprō'priĭt, IPA: /əˈpɹoʊ.pɹi.ɪt/, /əˈpɹoʊ.pɹi.ət/

Verb

• (RP) IPA: /əˈpɹəʊ.pɹiː.eɪt/
• (America) enPR: əprō'priāt, IPA: /əˈpɹoʊ.pɹi.eɪt/

Adjective

appropriate

1. Suitable or fit; proper.

   The headmaster wondered what an appropriate measure would be to make the pupil behave better.

   • in its strict and appropriate meaning

   • 1710, Edward Stillingfleet, Several Conferences Between a Romish Priest, a Fanatick Chaplain, and a Divine of the Church of England Concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome

     appropriate acts of divine worship

   • It is not at all times easy to find words appropriate to express our ideas.

2. Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.

   I don't think it was appropriate for the cashier to tell me out loud in front of all those people at the check-out that my hair-piece looked like it was falling out of place.

   While it is not considered appropriate for a professor to date his student, there is no such concern once the semester has ended.

3. (obsolete) Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.

Synonyms

• (suited for) apt, felicitous, fitting, suitable; see also Thesaurus:suitable

Antonyms

• (all senses) inappropriate

Related terms

• proper
• property

Translations

• French: approprié, idoine
• German: angebracht, angemessen, passend
• Italian: apposito
• Portuguese: apropriado
• Russian: соотве́тствующий
• Spanish: apropiado, adecuado

Translations

• Portuguese: apropriado

Translations

• German: zugewiesen
• Italian: apposito
• Portuguese: apropriado
• Spanish: apropiado

Verb

appropriate (appropriates, present participle appropriating; past and past participle appropriated)

1. (transitive, archaic) To make suitable; to suit.

   • Were we to take a portion of the skin, and contemplate its exquisite sensibility, so finely appropriated […] we should have no occasion to draw our argument, for the twentieth time, from the structure of the eye or the ear.

2. (transitive) To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.

   Let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.

3. (transitive) 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.

   to appropriate money for the increase of the navy

   • 2012, The Washington Post, David Nakamura and Tom Hamburger, "Put armed police in every school, NRA urges ↗"

     “I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation,” LaPierre said.

4. (transitive, British, ecclesiastical, legal) To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).

Synonyms

• (to take to oneself) help oneself, impropriate; see also Thesaurus:take or Thesaurus:steal
• (to set apart for) allocate, earmark; see also Thesaurus:set apart

Translations

• French: approprier
• German: anpassen
• Portuguese: apropriar
• Russian: приспосо́бить

Translations

• German: aneignen
• Portuguese: apropriar-se de, apoderar-se de
• Russian: присва́ивать
• Spanish: adueñarse

Translations

• German: zuweisen
• Portuguese: designar
• Russian: ассигнова́ть
• Spanish: designar

Translations

• German: aneignen

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003