Ap*pro`pri*a"tion (&?;), n. [L. appropriatio: cf. F. appropriation.] 1. The act of setting apart or assigning to a particular use or person, or of taking to one's self, in exclusion of all others; application to a special use or purpose, as of a piece of ground for a park, or of money to carry out some object.

2. Anything, especially money, thus set apart.

The Commons watched carefully over the appropriation.
Macaulay.

3. (Law) (a) The severing or sequestering of a benefice to the perpetual use of a spiritual corporation. Blackstone. (b) The application of payment of money by a debtor to his creditor, to one of several debts which are due from the former to the latter. Chitty.

• the act of appropriating, or something appropriated
  
• public funds set aside for a specific purpose
  
• (sociology) the assimilation of concepts into a governing framework
  
• (art) the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work