as in to seize
to take or make use of under a guise of authority but without actual right
arrogated the corner office without obtaining prior approval
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Recent Examples of arrogate
Disney arrogates those traits, skills, and experiences, essentially using modern female ideals to challenge traditional masculine ideals.
—
Armond White, National Review, 4 Dec. 2024
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
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
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 crescendo to this assault on expertise landed in June, when the majority’s Chevron decision arrogated to the courts regulatory calls that have been made by civil servant scientists, physicians and lawyers for the last 40 years.
—The Editors, Scientific American, 10 July 2024
The institution of the caliphate, now arrogated to themselves by the Umayyads, was thus transformed into arbitrary hereditary rule.
—Mohammed Ayoob, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2016
So why is his agency now arrogating to itself vast new regulatory power?
—The Editorial Board, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2023
Armond White, National Review, 4 Dec. 2024
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
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
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 crescendo to this assault on expertise landed in June, when the majority’s Chevron decision arrogated to the courts regulatory calls that have been made by civil servant scientists, physicians and lawyers for the last 40 years.
—The Editors, Scientific American, 10 July 2024
The institution of the caliphate, now arrogated to themselves by the Umayyads, was thus transformed into arbitrary hereditary rule.
—Mohammed Ayoob, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2016
So why is his agency now arrogating to itself vast new regulatory power?
—The Editorial Board, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for arrogate
Verb
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Officials seized less than 50 pounds of fentanyl along the U.S. northern border in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the AP, citing U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data.—
Mohammed Soliman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
29 Apr. 2025
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Attackers could seize on the pattern by identifying nonexistent packages that are repeatedly hallucinated.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
29 Apr. 2025
Verb
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The president has usurped the treaty power from the Senate by calling treaties executive agreements.—
Bruce Fein,
Baltimore Sun,
1 May 2025
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But digital technology has been used to obscure and usurp the truth about their lives.—
Katy Waldman,
New Yorker,
26 Apr. 2025
Verb
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The pair collaborated on searching freight shipments, storage units and vehicles to confiscate drugs, targeting marijuana in particular because it was stored locally rather than sent to the DEA, according to officials.—
Olivia Lloyd,
Miami Herald,
21 Apr. 2025
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Some of them have taken advantage of the departure of foreign and multinational corporations from Russia by buying depreciated assets or simply confiscating them, generally with the support of powerful insiders, such as the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.—
ALEXANDER GABUEV,
Foreign Affairs,
17 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Keep scrolling for more comfortable and packable flats to grab this season from Amazon, Nordstrom, Zappos, and more—starting at $25.—
Aly Walansky,
Travel + Leisure,
1 May 2025
-
Marsh male warbler simultaneously serenades its partner while grabbing a quick snack.—
Cecilia Rodriguez,
Forbes.com,
1 May 2025
Verb
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Amad’s second goal of the game comes from one such situation, with Antony occupying Taylor Harwood-Bellis.—
Anantaajith Raghuraman,
New York Times,
30 Apr. 2025
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That proposal would see Moscow de facto control parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions that Russia occupies but does not fully control.—
Tom Rogers,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Militant violence has afflicted Kashmir, claimed in full but ruled in part by both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan, since the anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989.—
Fayaz Bukhari,
USA Today,
24 Apr. 2025
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The case was filed by Mario Echevarría, one of the heirs of a Cuban family that claimed ownership of Cayo Coco, a small key off the northern coast of central Cuba, against Expedia and its affiliate sites Hotels.com and Orbitz under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.—
Nora Gamez Torres,
Sun Sentinel,
23 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Arrogate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/arrogate. Accessed 5 May. 2025.
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