From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishexpropriateex‧pro‧pri‧ate /ɪkˈsprəʊprieɪt $ -ˈsproʊ-/ verb [transitive] formal 1 SCLif a government or someone in authority expropriates your private property, they take it away for public use2 SCCSTEALto take something from someone illegally in order to use it —expropriation /ɪkˌsprəʊpriˈeɪʃən $ -ˌsproʊ-/ noun [countable, uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
expropriate• They wanted to expropriate a three-mile strip along the river, 159 acres in size.• Their ideas could be expropriated as freely and easily as blackberries from a hedge in summer.• The exclusion of properties expropriated before 1949 from restitution was inevitable.• The police station is in a private home that the Communists expropriated in 1948.• Where it could, it expropriated resources by simple edict.• The grateful colonists used the opportunity to expropriate the cattle and other assets of the fugitives.• Campbell reported that it would require $ 375,000 to expropriate the land needed.• If it were to expropriate their property it would have to compensate them with scarce foreign exchange.• Then, in the 1970s, the government expropriated thousands of acres of ejido land nationwide to promote tourism and other development.From Longman Business Dictionaryexpropriateex‧pro‧pri‧ate /ɪkˈsprəʊprieɪt-ˈsproʊ-/ verb [transitive] LAW if a government expropriates someone’s property, it legally takes that person’s property from them for public useThere is a risk that an investment abroad may be expropriated by the overseas government.The Court ruled that the president had been correct to expropriate property which belonged to the state. —expropriation noun [uncountable]the expropriation of black land by white settlers in the 19th century→ See Verb tableOrigin expropriate (1500-1600) Medieval Latin past participle of expropriare, from Latin proprius “your own” 