Etymology Borrowed from Latin cōnfiscātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin cōnfiscō (“to seize for the public treasury (fiscus)”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
1
To use one's authority to lay claim to and separate a possession from its holder.
In schools, it is common for teachers to confiscate electronic games and other distractions.
We doe confiscate (Towards the satisfying of your accounts) All that you haue.c. 1613, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, London: John Waterson, published 1623, Act III, Scene 2:
4 more examples
1768, Alexander Dow (translator), The History of Hindostan by Muḥammad Qāsim Hindū Shāh Astarābādī, London: T. Becket & P.A. de Hondt, Volume 2, Section 4, p. 63, The Persian having evacuated the imperial provinces, the vizier became more cruel and oppressive than ever: he extorted money from the poor by tortures, and confiscated the estates of the nobility, upon false or very frivolous pretences.
Why, your cavalier is a rebel—an exile, whose property is confiscated, and for whose neck the gibbet stands prepared!1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 241-242:
Whenever you strike a frontier—that’s the border of a country, you know—you find a custom-house there, and the gov’ment officers comes and rummages among your things and charges a big tax, which they call a duty because it’s their duty to bust you if they can, and if you don’t pay the duty they’ll hog your sand. They call it confiscating, but that don’t deceive nobody, it’s just hogging, and that’s all it is.1894, Mark Twain, chapter 11, in Tom Sawyer Abroad, New York: Charles L. Webster & Co, page 174:
They took photographs of the bodies, but these were confiscated on return to Baghdad, and orders were given that nothing was to be said of what they had seen.1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 2, p. 46:
Etymology Borrowed from Latin cōnfiscātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin cōnfiscō (“to seize for the public treasury (fiscus)”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
1
Obsolete Confiscated; seized and appropriated by the government for public use; forfeit.
Therefore give out you are of Epidamnum, / Lest that your goods too soon be confiscate.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
[…] thy lands and goods / Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate / Unto the state of Venice.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
2 more examples
[N]ot to lay into the Exchequer, or Common Treasury, such goods as are confiscate, but to store them up as holy and consecrate things, which except it bee practised, confiscations, and fines of the Common people would bee frequent, and so this State would decay by weakening the people.1642, Walter Raleigh, “Preservation of an Aristocraty”, in The Prince, or, Maxims of State, London, page 34:
Thy goods are confiscate unto the state, / Thy name is razed from out her records, […]1821, Lord Byron, Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 151: