disinherit
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
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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:
“A parent can disinherit a child, leaving them nothing,” according to Albertson & Davidson, a law firm with offices across southern California.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025
As we divest from its dated narratives and disinherit its archetypes, we need artists who are astute and skilled enough to invent new ones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2024
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
I’m willing to think that Harris doesn’t even realize why he doesn’t like my uncle, but he dislikes him enough to disinherit his eldest daughter.”
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
When Daemon's conduct becomes intolerable, Viserys disinherits and banishes him.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2022
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
Then, says he, `Asa, boy that act disinherits you, but it leaves all my property to one who has a better right to it.
From Our American Cousin by Taylor, Tom
All of the relatives are morally superior to Becket; after all, it’s not their fault he was disinherited.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Callum Flannelly is a painfully shy undertaker in Ireland who will be disinherited if he doesn’t marry by the time he’s 35.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2024
For Thurman, hatred is the real threat of occupation because it disguises itself as common sense and self-protection, then spreads through the disinherited as the cancer it becomes.
From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2024
I’m also confused as to how your half siblings are connected to you being disinherited by your mom.
From Slate ● Oct. 12, 2021
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
But for Marcus to follow this precedent would mean disinheriting his child.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
There are also legal means for disinheriting family members, and failing to include proper ‘no contest’ clauses can lead to expensive litigation, it adds.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025
Another post suggested disinheriting children, and deploying "your thoughts about the estrangement in the will as a last word."
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2024
In reality, disinheriting a spouse can be extremely hard to do.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2021
Bitterly as the Squire had felt the marriage, angry as he had been with Joe, he had never had the remotest thought of disinheriting him.
From Trevlyn Hold by Wood, Mrs. Henry
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.
