disinherit
Americanverb (used with object)
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disinherits,
present (3rd person singular)
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disinherited,
past participle, past
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disinheriting
present participle
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Law. to exclude from inheritance (an heir or a next of kin).
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to deprive of a heritage, country, right, privilege, etc..
the disinherited peoples of the earth.
verb
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law to deprive (an heir or next of kin) of inheritance or right to inherit
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to deprive of a right or heritage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disinheritsimple
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disinheritssimple
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have disinheritedperfect
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has disinheritedperfect
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am disinheritingprogressive
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are disinheritingprogressive
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is disinheritingprogressive
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have been disinheritingperfect progressive
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has been disinheritingperfect progressive
Past
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disinheritedsimple
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had disinheritedperfect
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was disinheritingprogressive
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were disinheritingprogressive
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had been disinheritingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disinherit
Explanation
When you disinherit someone, you decide not to leave that person anything in your will. Your eccentric grandfather might threaten to disinherit you because of your dirty fingernails. You need to have written a will — a document that lists where you want your money and property to go after your death — in order to disinherit someone. When your wealthy relative actually removes your name from her will, she officially disinherits you. The word inherit is at the heart of disinherit, with its old-fashioned meaning, "make someone an heir." When you add the Latin prefix dis, "not," you take away the inheritance altogether.
Vocabulary lists containing disinherit
Confessions of a Murder Suspect
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Part 3 Vocabulary (Unit 2)
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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.
See Examples For:
I can’t tell you to disinherit your son and daughter-in-law, and I can’t tell you not to do so.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Jose was planning to disinherit the brothers because he considered them failures, according to court filings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2025
Fleming severed his relationship with Monique after his mother threatened to disinherit him, an act that would reverberate across his lifetime in pangs of sadness and despair.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2024
He told the jury White “wants to disinherit his two brothers. Teddy wants it all.”
From Washington Times ● Jul. 11, 2023
Peace wanted to get a divorce and change his will to disinherit his wife.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Nearly every state in the U.S. has a version of California’s slayer statute, which effectively disinherits beneficiaries who’ve “feloniously and intentionally” killed their benefactors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
If she disinherits me, her only child, I can’t make it up to my half-siblings.
From Slate ● Oct. 12, 2021
He disinherits Lewis, leaving him only the ill-fated collection.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2015
Sebald’s melancholy flâneur, then, already disinherits Baudelaire’s 19th-century optimism.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2013
My husband's will disinherits me, as soon as I give up the name of Wildenau.
From On the Cross A Romance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau by Wilhelmine von Hillern
By then, Evelyn has also learned that Laura’s father disinherited her shortly before his sudden death, though Laura refuses to explain why.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
“I believe there was a will that disinherited us somewhere,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025
Howard Thurman said, “There is one overmastering problem that the socially and politically disinherited always face: under what terms is survival possible?”
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2024
No one will be forced into a relationship with C that they don’t want to have, and no one will be confused about their own parentage or disinherited.
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2020
In the 1964 “long, hot summer” riots in major cities across the United States, the socially disinherited black ghetto youth were always at the forefront.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
“A lot of parents in new relationships end up, unbeknownst to them, disinheriting their children,” said Stacy Francis, a New York City-based certified financial planner.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
But for Marcus to follow this precedent would mean disinheriting his child.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
Another post suggested disinheriting children, and deploying "your thoughts about the estrangement in the will as a last word."
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2024
If your spouse isn’t willing, you can talk to the attorney about your options, but understand that disinheriting them may not be possible.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2021
I imagine the reason of his disinheriting Maude—whose birth and existence it appears he did know of—was the anger he felt towards Joe and her mother, for having married in opposition to him.
From Trevlyn Hold by Mrs. Henry Wood
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.
