[with obj.]take or seize (someone's property) with authority 没收,查抄(某人的财产) the guards confiscated his camera. 警卫没收了他的相机。 ■appropriate (something, especially land) to the public treasury as a penalty 被没收的设备
mid 16th cent.: from Latin confiscat- 'put away in a chest, consigned to the public treasury', from the verb confiscare, based on con- 'together' + fiscus 'chest, treasury'