Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EM-BEZ'ZLE, v.t. [Norm. embeasiler, to filch; beseler, id. The primary sense to not quite obvious. If the sense is to strip, to peel, it coincides with the Ar. بَصَّلَ, bassala, to strip, or Heb. Ch. and Syr. פצל. In Heb. Ch. Syr. and Sam. בוז or בוה signifies to plunder. See Class Bs, No. 2, 21, 22. Perhaps the sense is to cut off. No. 21, 54.]

1. To appropriate fraudulently to one's own use what is intrusted to one's care and management. It differs from stealing and robbery in this, that the latter imply a wrongful taking of another's goods, but embezzlement denotes the wrongful appropriation and use of what came into possession by right. It is not uncommon for men intrusted with public money to embezzle it.
2. To waste, to dissipate in extravagance. When thou hast embezzled all thy store. Dryden.