The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bequeath \Be*queath"\ (b[-e]*kw[=e][th]"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bequeathed; p. pr. & vb. n. Bequeathing.] [OE. biquethen, AS. becwe[eth]an to say, affirm, bequeath; pref. be- + cwe[eth]an to say, speak. See Quoth.]
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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.
--Shak. -
To hand down; to transmit.
To bequeath posterity somewhat to remember it.
--Glanvill. -
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.
--Shak.Syn: To Bequeath, Devise.
Usage: 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.
Wiktionary
vb. (en-past of: bequeath)
Usage examples of "bequeathed".
He belonged entirely to those pale haughty women to one of whom he had bequeathed his tight-lipped mouth.
Ambition nor avarice, nor yet craving after luxury, disturb their contented souls or drag them away from the non-progressive round of simple life bequeathed them by their fathers.
She made the most of the brief fluid loquaciousness the razored acid bequeathed as lure and incentive.
He had bequeathed it to Evrael, according to his eldest brother, who mentioned some passing madness about the woman Lerissa, the details of which he seemed to have forgotten.
Griesinger, Haydn bequeathed a capital of 6000 florins to this faithful servant and copyist.
His will bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, much to the chagrin of the cousins, who promptly went to war against Rome.
It was pledged to my grandfather for two hundred crowns by a knight of Malta, who soon after perished in a sea engagement with the enemies of our faith, so that it became the property of our house, and was bequeathed to me by the old gentleman, as a memorial of his particular affection.
Major of his reason for excluding them from his presence, he applauded his concern, bequeathed them to his future care, and took leave of that gentleman with a cordial embrace.
What utter folly for any public man whose position is not inherited and cannot be bequeathed to his posterity, to support the edifice of his grandeur on any other basis than the noblest virtue practised for the general good, and to suppose that he can ensure the continuance of his own fortune otherwise than by taking all precautions against sudden whirlwinds which are want to arise in the midst of a calm, and to blow up the storm-clouds I mean the host of enemies.
For my part, I confess that I am impatient to increase the store of honour which our father bequeathed to us.
And it is right that, to the modern Anacreon, who has bequeathed to Time a treasure it will never forego, Time itself should be gentle in return.
Bezoni left me, unconscious of the anguish he bequeathed me, to think over all he had said.
I ransacked whatever in my scanty library the theologians had written or the philosophers had bequeathed upon that mighty secret.
I had seen the actual testament, no fraudulent transfer of the property therein bequeathed could take place without my knowledge that some fraud had been recurred to.
If I have borne much, and my spirit has worked out its earthly end in travail and in tears, yet I would not forego the lessons which my life has bequeathed me, even though they be deeply blended with sadness and regret.