Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Appropriation \Ap*pro`pri*a"tion\, n. [L. appropriatio: cf. F.
   appropriation.]
   1. The act of setting apart or assigning to a particular use
      or person, or of taking to one's self, in exclusion of all
      others; application to a special use or purpose, as of a
      piece of ground for a park, or of money to carry out some
      object.

   2. Anything, especially money, thus set apart.

            The Commons watched carefully over the
            appropriation.                        --Macaulay.

   3. (Law)
      (a) The severing or sequestering of a benefice to the
          perpetual use of a spiritual corporation. Blackstone.
      (b) The application of payment of money by a debtor to his
          creditor, to one of several debts which are due from
          the former to the latter. --Chitty.

Source : WordNet®

appropriation
     n 1: money set aside (as by a legislature) for a specific purpose
     2: incorporation by joining or uniting [syn: {annexation}]
     3: a deliberate act of acquisition