arrogate
verb
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The resemblance between arrogate and arrogant is more than coincidence: they both have the Latin verb arrogare, meaning “to appropriate to one's self,” at their root. This idea of claiming or seizing something as one’s right is immediately apparent in the English word arrogate: the word is used primarily to talk about taking or claiming a right or a privilege in a way that is not fair or legal. In arrogant the idea of appropriation is slightly veiled: by showing an offensive attitude of superiority, an arrogant person claims—that is, arrogates—more consideration than they are due.
Examples of arrogate in a Sentence
Joseph Torigian, Foreign Affairs, 23 June 2025
Politicians exist to spend, and Congress arrogated to itself what was left over after existing Social Security recipients were paid.
—John Tamny, Forbes.com, 28 May 2025
Trump arrogated to himself the authority to impose sweeping tariffs on the entire world, a power that properly belongs to Congress, and has caused turmoil throughout the economy; many economic indicators are now pointing in the wrong direction.
—The Editors, National Review, 29 Apr. 2025
Back before the federal government arrogated to itself an outsize role as financier of college education, the Wayne States of the world were where ambitious people who didn’t have a lot of money, who wanted to save money on college, or both, got their degrees.
—John Tamny, Forbes, 12 Oct. 2024
In every period, the essence of politics has been that a tin-pot tsar who wants to arrogate to himself the right to personal, unaccountable power needs to intimidate the honest people who are not afraid of him.
—Alexei Navalny, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
Instead of deferring to the people’s representatives, as the Founders intended, today originalists on the Supreme Court have arrogated power to themselves.
—Saul Cornell / Made By History, TIME, 26 July 2024
The Bibi Files uses a mix of talking-head history and in-the-room vérité to paint its picture of a leader who has arrogated power for corrupt and self-interested reasons — the allegations are of some $250,000 in gifts received in exchange for political favors — to his country’s detriment.
—Steven Zeitchik, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Cite this Entry
“Arrogate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arrogate. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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arrogate
verb
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