Inheritance

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Inheritance \In*her"it*ance\, n. [Cf. OF. enheritance.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. The act or state of inheriting; as, the inheritance of an
        estate; the inheritance of mental or physical qualities.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. That which is or may be inherited; that which is derived
        by an heir from an ancestor or other person; a heritage; a
        possession which passes by descent.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              When the man dies, let the inheritance
              Descend unto the daughter.            --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A permanent or valuable possession or blessing, esp. one
        received by gift or without purchase; a benefaction.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and
              that fadeth not away.                 --1 Pet. i. 4.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Possession; ownership; acquisition. "The inheritance of
        their loves." --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              To you th' inheritance belongs by right
              Of brother's praise; to you eke 'longs his love.
                                                    --Spenser.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Biol.) Transmission and reception by animal or plant
        generation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. (Law) A perpetual or continuing right which a man and his
        heirs have to an estate; an estate which a man has by
        descent as heir to another, or which he may transmit to
        another as his heir; an estate derived from an ancestor to
        an heir in course of law. --Blackstone.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The word inheritance (used simply) is mostly confined
           to the title to land and tenements by a descent.
           --Mozley & W.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 Men are not proprietors of what they have, merely
                 for themselves; their children have a title to
                 part of it which comes to be wholly theirs when
                 death has put an end to their parents' use of it;
                 and this we call inheritance.      --Locke.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  inheritance
       n 1: hereditary succession to a title or an office or property
            [syn: {heritage}]
       2: that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that
          passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner [syn:
          {heritage}]
       3: (genetics) attributes acquired via biological heredity from
          the parents [syn: {hereditary pattern}]
       4: any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited
          from ancestors; "my only inheritance was my mother's
          blessing"; "the world's heritage of knowledge" [syn: {heritage}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  70 Moby Thesaurus words for "inheritance":
     Altmann theory, DNA, De Vries theory, Galtonian theory,
     Mendelianism, Mendelism, RNA, Verworn theory, Weismann theory,
     Weismannism, Wiesner theory, allele, allelomorph, attested copy,
     bequeathal, bequest, birth, birthright, borough-English, character,
     chromatid, chromatin, chromosome, codicil, coheirship, coparcenary,
     determinant, determiner, devise, diathesis, endowment, entail,
     eugenics, factor, gavelkind, gene, genesiology, genetic code,
     genetics, heirloom, heirship, hereditability, hereditament,
     heredity, heritability, heritable, heritage, heritance,
     inborn capacity, incorporeal hereditament, inheritability,
     law of succession, legacy, line of succession, matrocliny,
     mode of succession, patrimony, patrocliny, pharmacogenetics,
     postremogeniture, primogeniture, probate, property,
     recessive character, replication, reversion, succession, testament,
     ultimogeniture, will
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  inheritance
       
           In {object-oriented
          programming}, the ability to derive new {classes} from
          existing classes.  A {derived class} (or "subclass") inherits
          the {instance variables} and {methods} of the "{base class}"
          (or "superclass"), and may add new instance variables and
          methods.  New methods may be defined with the same names as
          those in the base class, in which case they override the
          original one.
       
          For example, bytes might belong to the class of integers for
          which an add method might be defined.  The byte class would
          inherit the add method from the integer class.
       
          See also {Liskov substitution principle}, {multiple
          inheritance}.
       
          (2000-10-10)
       
       

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  INHERITANCE, estates. A perpetuity in lands to a man and his heirs; or it is 
  the right to succeed to the estate of a person who died intestate. Dig. 50, 
  16, 24. The term is applied to lands. 
       2. The property which is inherited is called an inheritance. 
       3. The term inheritance includes not only lands and tenements which 
  have been acquired by descent, but also every fee simple or fee tail, which 
  a person has acquired by purchase, may be said to be an inheritance, because 
  the purchaser's heirs may inherit it. Litt. s. 9. 
       4. Estates of inheritance are divided into inheritance absolute, or fee 
  simple; and inheritance limited, one species of which is called fee tail. 
  They are also divided into corporeal, as houses and lands and incorporeal, 
  commonly called incorporeal hereditaments. (q. v.) 1 Cruise, Dig. 68; Sw. 
  163; Poth. des Retraits, n. 2 8. 
       5. Among the civilians, by inheritance is understood the succession to 
  all the rights of the deceased. It is of two kinds, 1 . That which arises by 
  testament, when the testator gives his succession to a particular person; 
  and, 2. That which arises by operation of law, which is called succession ab 
  intestat. Hein. Lec. El. Sec. 484, 485.