BEQUEATH • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Bequeath

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/bɪkwˈiθ/ Listen

verb

Bequeath v. t. (past & past part. bequeathed; pres. part. bequeathing)

To give or leave by will; to give by testament; said especially of personal property. "My heritage, which my dead father did bequeath to me."

To hand down; to transmit. "To bequeath posterity somewhat to remember it."

To give; to offer; to commit. (Obs.) "To whom, with all submission, on my knee I do bequeath my faithful services And true subjection everlastingly."

Synonyms: To Bequeath, Devise. Both these words denote the giving or disposing of property by will. Devise, in legal usage, is property used to denote a gift by will of real property, and he to whom it is given is called the devisee. Bequeath is properly applied to a gift by will or legacy; i. e., of personal property; the gift is called a legacy, and he who receives it is called a legatee. In popular usage the word bequeath is sometimes enlarged so as to embrace devise; and it is sometimes so construed by courts.

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Etymology of 'Bequeath'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bequeath" Quotes from Famous Books

... family. He had many children, and, when death thinned their ranks, took the loss like a philosopher,—as he was,—a French philosopher. He philosophized that his utmost exertions could not do much more for the child than bequeath to him just such a life as he led, and a share in just such a saloon as he owned; and therefore, if a priest and a coffin insured the little innocent admission into heaven without any extra charge, he would not betray such lack of wisdom as to demur ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, 1863, No. LXIV. • Various

... discovered by now that it was the strange honey of melody which made the coarse, common cassava bread of everyday life in my story so pleasant to the palate. I was quite prepared to receive a proposal to give her music and singing lessons, and to bequeath a guitar to her in my last will and testament. For, in spite of her hoary hair and million wrinkles, she, more than any other savage I had met with, seemed to have taken a draught from Ponce de Leon's undiscovered fountain of ...

— Green Mansions - A Romance of the Tropical Forest • W. H. Hudson

... in mine heart Declare one point of all my sorrows' smart To you, my lady, that I love the most: But I bequeath the service of my ghost To you aboven every creature, Since that my life ne may no longer dure. Alas the woe! alas, the paines strong That I for you have suffered and so long! Alas the death, alas, mine Emily! Alas departing* of our company! *the severance Alas, mine ...

— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer

... ruins; we see destruction that our hands can no longer arrest. And that is why we send away the builders from their workshops. With a last blow of the hammer we overthrow the columns of salaries. We leave the temple deserted, and we bequeath it as a great work to posterity which shall raise it again on its ruins ...

— Secret Societies And Subversive Movements • Nesta H. Webster

... broken up. But toward evening he briefly rallied, to maunder about many things, confounding in a sinister jumble the memories of the past weeks and those of bygone years. "By the way," he said suddenly, "I've made no will. I haven't much to bequeath. Yet I have something." He had been playing listlessly with a large signet-ring on his left hand, which he now tried to draw off. "I leave you this"—working it round and round vainly—"if you can get it off. ...

— A Passionate Pilgrim • Henry James

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