confiscate

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
confiscate /ˈkɒnfɪskeɪt/

▶verb take or seize (property) with authority.

■ appropriate to the public treasury as a penalty.

– derivatives
confiscation noun,
confiscator noun,
confiscatory adjective.

– origin C16 (earlier (C15) as confiscation): from L. confiscat-, confiscare ‘put away in a chest, consign to the public treasury’, based on con- ‘together’ + fiscus ‘chest, treasury’.