Em*bez"zle*ment (?), n.
The fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been intrusted; as, the embezzlement by a clerk of his employer's; embezzlement of public funds by the public officer having them in charge.
⇒ Larceny denotes a taking, by fraud or stealth, from another's possession; embezzlement denotes an appropriation, by fraud or stealth, of property already in the wrongdoer's possession. In England and in most of the United States embezzlement is made indictable by statute.
© Webster 1913.