The Collaborative International Dictionary
Peculate \Pec"u*late\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Peculated; p. pr. & vb. n. Peculating.] [L. peculatus, p. p. of peculari to peculate, akin to peculium private property. See Peculiar.] To appropriate to one's own use the property of the public; to steal public moneys intrusted to one's care; to embezzle.
An oppressive, . . . rapacious, and peculating
despotism.
--Burke.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of peculate English)
Usage examples of "peculating".
He'd picked up a rumor that the head cook was peculating, probably with the help of some of the victuallers that supplied the ship.
Father also suspects him of peculating Service funds, some kind of sleight-ofhand in shipbuilding contracts.
The Provisioning Committee is either peculating, or it is incompetent.
He did not have to class himself with the cheating captains he had heard about, with the peculating officers he had known.
Clearly he must have shifted the scene of his operations farther west, because a year later he plays an incredibly audacious, but not a very profitable part, in a serio-comic business in Manila Bay, in which a peculating governor and an absconding treasurer are the principal figures.