Bequest
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The act of bequeathing or leaving by will.
- 2 (law) a gift of personal property by will wordnet
- 3 The transfer of property upon the owner's death according to the will of the deceased.
"2006 SHERRY CLODMAN & EDWARD H. PEARCE: Well Advised. p.25 Civil Sector Press →ISBN A specific bequest is the gift of a specific sum of money, or the gift of a specific property or a particular asset. Perhaps the most common type of bequest, and undoubtedly the most certain, it is the first to be paid after the settlement of estate debts."
- 4 That which is left by will; a legacy.
- 5 That which has been handed down or transmitted.
"Yet some odor of religion is still lingering here, the bequest of pious souls, who had grace to enjoy a foretaste of immortal life."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A person's inheritance; an amount of property given by will.
- 1 To give as a bequest; bequeath. transitive
Example
More examples"His generous bequest enabled the church to continue funding the youth group."
Etymology
From Middle English biqueste, bequeste (“will, testament, bequest”), from be + -quiste, queste (“saying, utterance, testament, will, legacy”), from Old English *cwist, *cwiss (“saying”) (compare Old English andcwiss, ġecwis, uncwisse, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *kwissiz (“saying”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet- (“to say”). Related to Old English andcwiss (“answer, reply”), Old English uncwisse (“dumb, mute”), Middle English bequethen (“to bequeath”). Not related to quest, which is from Latin. More at quoth, bequeath.
From Middle English biquesten, from the noun (see above).
Related phrases
More for "bequest"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.