1
2
as in to evict
to end the occupancy or possession of the state will have to expropriate scores of homeowners in order to build the new road

Synonyms & Similar Words

3
as in to confiscate
to take ownership or control of (something) by right of one's authority plans by the city to expropriate entire blocks of houses in order to bulldoze them for expansion of the airport

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of expropriate Market value was preponderant in determining the value of the piece of land that the state deemed worthy of expropriating. Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2025 Nor has any land been expropriated without compensation. Lauren Kent, CNN, 11 Feb. 2025 After the 1959 revolution, the state expropriated the ground floor. Lydia Bell, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Dec. 2024 He has been accused of destroying Colombia's exemplary health care system, expropriating pension funds, paying off delinquent youth with government funds, and ordering the military to cease capturing crime gang leaders. Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2024 See All Example Sentences for expropriate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for expropriate
Verb
  • This time, the case moved forward alongside multiple simultaneous investigations and cases in other states, and in 2018, the federal government seized Backpage and it was taken down.
    Kate Wolffe, Sacbee.com, 11 May 2025
  • The White House, with Vice President JD Vance’s experience in tech, should seize this moment to build a national AI strategy that does not leave the workers behind.
    Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Time, 11 May 2025
Verb
  • Poor tenants unable to pay their rent claimed they were evicted; not an uncommon practice at the time, or since, but one that advantages the powerful over the weak.
    Nic Robertson, CNN Money, 29 Apr. 2025
  • The territories from which Dodik has evicted Bosnian state institutions are, not coincidentally, the same ones in which Serbian forces committed genocide against Bosniaks in the 1990s.
    Ismet Fatih Cancar, Foreign Affairs, 9 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • But white farmers are being brutally killed, and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.
    Shannon K. Kingston, ABC News, 13 May 2025
  • Our families could be dishonored in public, our personal memories confiscated for storage inside the Criminal Archives.
    Hazlitt, Hazlitt, 13 May 2025
Verb
  • Wing-backs James McClean and Ryan Barnett were first choice for much of the campaign before January arrival Ryan Longman eventually usurped Barnett down the right flank.
    Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 9 May 2025
  • After years of gradually usurping many forms of legacy media, podcasts are set to get their flowers on one of Hollywood’s biggest nights.
    Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 7 May 2025
Verb
  • On top of that, the Jane Does allege they were deprived them of meal and rest breaks, were paid less than minimum wage and never paid overtime or holidays, according to KTLA.
    Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 6 May 2025
  • Do Republicans have to admit the possibility that their wild and wacky primary elections could, yet again, deprive them of the upper chamber?
    Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 6 May 2025
Verb
  • Mac routinely stole scenes in the comedies of the '90s, such as Friday (1995) and The Player's Club (1998).
    Randall Colburn, EW.com, 3 May 2025
  • Hodge was walked intentionally, then stole second, and Harvard-Westlake made the decision to put Lopez on first to load the bases.
    Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2025
Verb
  • Nico Williams soon dispossessed a stumbling Harry Maguire in the United half, and almost put Maroan Sannadi clear.
    Dermot Corrigan, New York Times, 2 May 2025
  • Attempts to dispossess majority indigenous populations are usually violent themselves, however, and almost always run up against resistance.
    Tamir Sorek, The Conversation, 2 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Combs returns to the scene shortly thereafter and appears to grab at the phone.
    Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 14 May 2025
  • And Golden State, with the seventh-highest odds, also leaped over the Bullets to grab third.
    David Aldridge, New York Times, 13 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Expropriate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/expropriate. Accessed 20 May. 2025.

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