bequeathed
Americanadjective
-
(of personal property or money) disposed of by a person’s final will.
The college has received a bequeathed gift of $1 million from one of its alumni.
-
handed down or passed on.
The more conservative council members see traditional values as the bequeathed virtues of a preferred past.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of bequeathed
First recorded in 1615–25; bequeath ( def. ) + -ed 2 ( def. ) for the adjective senses; bequeath ( def. ) + -ed 1 ( def. ) for the verb sense
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Monkhouse bequeathed his joke book collection to his writing partner in his will.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
He points out in a note that profit growth of 1% relative to the average of the prior two quarters was lower than the 1.7% benefit bequeathed by the period’s 1.5 extra days.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 12, 2025
“Hey, supervisor!” — as he strode past Town Hall to Imagination Park, a gift the city’s most famous resident, filmmaker George Lucas, bequeathed along with life-sized statues of Yoda and Indiana Jones.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2025
The Mount Shasta Trail Assn., which was bequeathed hundreds of thousands of dollars from an anonymous donor who wanted to see access to the falls, tried for years to negotiate with the railroad, Harch said.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2025
Handel, though, not only represented a musical amalgam of European styles during his lifetime; he also bequeathed to the next generation of composers a non-parochial, universal idiom that was venerated and built upon.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
