BEQUEST

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bequest mean? 

• BEQUEST (noun)
  The noun BEQUEST has 1 sense:

1. (law) a gift of personal property by will

  Familiarity information: BEQUEST used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEQUEST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(law) a gift of personal property by will

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

bequest; legacy

Hypernyms ("bequest" is a kind of...):

heritage; inheritance (that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner)

gift (something acquired without compensation)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

 Context examples 

Reminding him of the fact, that Mr. Peggotty derived a steady, though certainly a very moderate income from the bequest of his late brother-in-law, I promised to do so.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At the end of a year he would be free to return to the cloisters, for such had been his father's bequest.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to give me no hope from law.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Nonsense! and what sort of an effect will the bequest have on you?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was neither so unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his nephew;—but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the bequest.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I took the paper from him and read as follows: TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., there is now another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a salary of £ 4 a week for purely nominal services.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His money, which had ruined what might have been a great life, was divided amongst many bequests, an annuity to his valet, Ambrose, being amongst them; but enough has come to his sister, my dear mother, to help to make her old age as sunny and as pleasant as even I could wish.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now the wealth did not weigh on me: now it was not a mere bequest of coin,—it was a legacy of life, hope, enjoyment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)