Definition of "appropriation" []

• The act of appropriating. (noun)
• Something appropriated, especially public funds set aside for a specific purpose. (noun)
• A legislative act authorizing the expenditure of a designated amount of public funds for a specific purpose. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Artists have, of course, been sticky-fingered for ages, long before the term "appropriation art" was ushered into the lexicon to describe the Pictures Generation."
• "In postmodern ideals, this kind of appropriation is - well, appropriate, fitting, part of the continual process we all go through of assimilating culture and creating new culture based on that assimilation."
• "The Texas Board of Medical Examiners was so overwhelmed with new physician applications it had to acquire a special appropriation from the legislature to hire more personnel."