LEGACY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does legacy mean? 

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

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

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEGACY (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 ("legacy" 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 

There was also a legacy of one thousand pounds.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He accepted, from his sister's stock of ready money, a small sum on account of his legacy; barely enough, I should have thought, to keep him for a month.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She could not shake off the legacy of her race, the law that was of her blood and that had been trained into her.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

If you have children, you may hope to leave them a legacy someday.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It's not half so sensible to leave legacies when one dies as it is to use the money wisely while alive, and enjoy making one's fellow creatures happy with it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Fear!—that legacy of the Wild which no animal may escape nor exchange for pottage.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He survived his uncle no longer; and ten thousand pounds, including the late legacies, was all that remained for his widow and daughters.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

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)

A colossal impact with a large asteroid early in Mars' history may have ripped off a chunk of the northern hemisphere and left behind a legacy of metallic elements in the planet's interior.

(Ancient Asteroid Impact Explains Martian Geological Mysteries, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Three girls, the two eldest sixteen and fourteen, was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath, an awful charge rather, to confide to the authority and guidance of a conceited, silly father.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)