英文字典中文字典51ZiDian.com

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Inheritance \In*her"it*ance\, n. [Cf. OF. enheritance.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The act or state of inheriting; as, the inheritance of an
estate; the inheritance of mental or physical qualities.
[1913 Webster]

2. That which is or may be inherited; that which is derived
by an heir from an ancestor or other person; a heritage; a
possession which passes by descent.
[1913 Webster]

When the man dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]

3. A permanent or valuable possession or blessing, esp. one
received by gift or without purchase; a benefaction.
[1913 Webster]

To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and
that fadeth not away. --1 Pet. i. 4.
[1913 Webster]

4. Possession; ownership; acquisition. "The inheritance of
their loves." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]

To you th' inheritance belongs by right
Of brother's praise; to you eke 'longs his love.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]

5. (Biol.) Transmission and reception by animal or plant
generation.
[1913 Webster]

6. (Law) A perpetual or continuing right which a man and his
heirs have to an estate; an estate which a man has by
descent as heir to another, or which he may transmit to
another as his heir; an estate derived from an ancestor to
an heir in course of law. --Blackstone.
[1913 Webster]

Note: The word inheritance (used simply) is mostly confined
to the title to land and tenements by a descent.
--Mozley & W.
[1913 Webster]

Men are not proprietors of what they have, merely
for themselves; their children have a title to
part of it which comes to be wholly theirs when
death has put an end to their parents' use of it;
and this we call inheritance. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]