bequest
Americannoun
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a disposition in a will.
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a legacy.
A small bequest allowed her to live independently.
noun
Etymology
Origin of bequest
1250–1300; Middle English biqueste, biquyste, equivalent to bi- be- + quiste will, bequest, Old English -cwis ( se ) (with excrescent t, as in behest ), noun derivative of cwethan to say; on the model of bequethen bequeath
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.
Their care was funded by great commercial wealth—among the most compelling characters here is the man whose bequest first financed the Innocenti: Francesco Datini, a preposterously wealthy, libidinous and melancholy-prone merchant.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
Receiving a bequest from your father will not change the many years you had growing up.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 24, 2025
The case landed in the Court of Chancery - where Elizabeth argued her late husband had no power to grant Shakespeare's home and mentioned her grandfather's bequest to her mother.
From BBC • Aug. 22, 2025
Perhaps its most lasting bequest to television, however, is the messy friend defined by Dunham’s Hannah Horvath.
From Salon • Jul. 10, 2025
He died soon after making this bequest of his life’s work to the stunned younger man, who only weeks before had been a penniless refugee.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
