[f. late L. expropriāt- ppl. stem of expropriāre to deprive of property, f. ex- + proprium property, neut. of proprius own: see PROPER. Cf. Fr. exproprier.]
1. trans. To dispossess (a person) of ownership; to deprive of property. Const. from.
Now chiefly to deprive of property either wholly or in part, for the public use, usually with provision of compensation.
1611. Cotgr., Exproprié, expropriated.
1852. Grote, Greece, II. lxxix. X. 406. All those proprietors had been … expropriated.
1875. J. H. Bennet, Winter Medit., II. xiii. 480. The Government gives… power to expropriate the owner of the land required.
1881. W. Bence Jones, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 132/2. To expropriate the owners from their estates must be a very bitter pill.
2. † a. To put (a thing) out of one’s own control (obs.). b. To take out of the owner’s hands.
1660. Boyle [see EXPROPRIATED ppl. a.].
1775. in Ash.
1881. Daily Tel., 14 Feb., 5/4. A corner of the garden … was ‘expropriated’ by Baron Haussmann for the purpose of widening the Rue Lafayette.
1884. H. A. Taine, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 518. It [the State] expropriates private property for public utility.
Hence Expropriated ppl. a.
1660. Boyle, Seraph. Love, iii. (1700), 29. When you have Resign’d, or rather Consign’d your expropriated Will (if I may so call it) to God.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 June, 2/3. The wrath of the expropriated exploiteurs is extreme.
