BEQUEATH • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • 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

... other swains attend the rural care, Feed fairer flocks, or richer fleeces shear: But nigh yon mountain let me tune my lays, Embrace my love, and bind my brows with bays. That flute is mine which Colin's tuneful breath Inspired when living, and bequeath'd in death; 40 He said, 'Alexis, take this pipe—the same That taught the groves my Rosalinda's name:' But now the reeds shall hang on yonder tree, For ever silent, since despised by thee. Oh! were I made by some transforming ...

— The Poetical Works Of Alexander Pope, Vol. 1 • Alexander Pope et al

... "I bequeath," he says in his will, "to my sister all the books which I printed at the monastery of St. Arbogast." The poor inventor's only legacy to his surviving relative was the common property of almost all inventors like ...

— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... Museum is a portion of the heart of Richard Coeur-de-Lion. The Crusader king loved the Normans, and bequeathed his heart to them. He did not bequeath it to Imperial France. With all his faults, he was an illustrious soldier of Christendom; and he deserves to rest, not within the pale of this sensualist and atheist Empire, but in some land where the spirit of religious enterprise is ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 105, July 1866 • Various

... being to be hoped that their dwelling be there they will be carefull for their own souls. I do make and constitute my dear kinsman Anthony Rous, Esq., of Wootton, in the county of Cornwall, commonly called or known by the name of Colonel Rous, to be my whole and sole executor. And I give and bequeath to him all my lands, tenements, my interest in the parsonage of Great Brookham in Surrey, all my leases, chattels, plate, money, and other goodly whatsoever, as also my copyholds, which shall, according to custom, be made over to him in Acton or ...

— Notes and Queries, Number 237, May 13, 1854 • Various

... dearly beloved wife, Martha Washington, I give and bequeath the use, profit, and benefit of my whole estate, real and personal, for the term of her natural life, except such parts thereof as are specially disposed of hereafter. My improved lot in the town of ...

— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing

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