(law, chiefly historical) The wrongful appropriation or embezzlement of shared or public property, usually by a person entrusted with the guardianship of that property.
[The Chief Magistrate] might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression.
She considered herself engaged to be married to a Scotch propaganda officer who had been dismissed for peculation and gone home to sell cars.
It was a feature of Athens’ democratic constitution that at the end of their year in office Athenian officials had to submit an account of their service, financial and otherwise, to public scrutiny. Ephialtes took the opportunity to bring charges of peculation against the outgoing archons who were about to enter the Areopagus and succeeded in having them removed from that council.
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