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One who inherits, or is entitled to succeed to the possession of, any property after the death of its owner; one on whom the law bestows the title or property of another at the death of the latter. I am my father's heir and only son. Shak.

The state of an heir; succession by inheritance. Burke.

, or personal chattel, which by law or special custom descends to the heir along with the inheritance; any piece of personal property that has been in a family for several generations. Woe to him whose daring hand profanes The honored heirlooms of his ancestors. Moir.

The state, character, or privileges of an heir; right of inheriting. Heirship movables, certain kinds of movables which the heir is entitled to take, besides the heritable estate. [Scot.]

Capable of being inherited. See Inheritable. Locke.

By inheritance. W. Tooke.

Any species of property that may be inherited; lands, tenements, anything corporeal or incorporeal, real, personal, or mixed, that may descend to an heir. Blackstone.

By inheritance; in an hereditary manner. Pope.

ded, or capable of descending, from an ancestor to an heir at law; received or passing by inheritance, or that must pass by inheritance; as, an hereditary estate or crown.

Capable of being inherited or of passing by inheritance; inheritable.

That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. Part of my heritage, Which my dead father did bequeath to me. Shak.

Heritage; inheritance. [R.] Robbing their children of the heritance Their fathers handed down Southey.

eak honestly. Shak. To come honestly by. (a) To get honestly. (b) A circumlocution for to inherit; as, to come honestly by a feature, a mental trait, a peculiarity.

erence to what is bad. [R.] We all have, I fear, . . . not a little improved the wretched inheritance of our ancestors. Bp. Porteus.

iate tenant by courtesy (Law), said of a husband who becomes such in his wife's estate of inheritance by the birth of a child, but whose estate is not consummated till the death of the wife. Mozley & W.

nt made without regard to natural obligation, or by which a child is unjustly deprived of inheritance. "The inofficious testament." Blackstone. "An inofficious disposition of his fortune." Paley.

ate of New York, and their history was investigated by R. L. Dugdale as an example of the inheritance of criminal and immoral tendencies, disease, and pauperism. Sixty per cent of those traced showed, degeneracy, and they are estimated to have cost society $1,308,000 in 75 years.

Inheriting by direct descent; having the right by direct descent to succeed (to). For only you are lineal to the throne. Dryden.

A principle governing the inheritance of many characters in animals and plants, discovered by Gregor J. Mendel (Austrian Augustinian abbot, 1822-84) in breeding experiments with peas. He showed that the height, color, and other characters depend on the presence of determinating factors behaving as units. In any given g…

n which it is stipulated that neither the latter nor her children shall enjoy the rank or inherit the possessions of her husband. Brande & C. -- Mor`ga*nat"ic*al*ly, adv.