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HEIR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("heir" is a kind of...):
receiver; recipient (a person who receives something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "heir"):
heir apparent (an heir whose right to an inheritance cannot be defeated if that person outlives the ancestor)
heir-at-law (the person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate)
heiress; inheritress; inheritrix (a female heir)
heir presumptive (a person who expects to inherit but whose right can be defeated by the birth of a nearer relative)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A person who inherits some title or office
Synonyms:
heir; successor
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("heir" is a kind of...):
issue; offspring; progeny (the immediate descendants of a person)
Context examples:
And the bulk of your fortune would be laid out in annuities on the authors or their heirs.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He was a retired—what do you call it!—draper—cloth-merchant—and had made me his heir.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
As soon as they have completed the term of eighty years, they are looked on as dead in law; their heirs immediately succeed to their estates; only a small pittance is reserved for their support; and the poor ones are maintained at the public charge.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Rosamond Oliver, said he, is about to be married to Mr. Granby, one of the best connected and most estimable residents in S-, grandson and heir to Sir Frederic Granby: I had the intelligence from her father yesterday.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
"Poor little man, he's worn out with sleep and crying. I'll cover him up, and then go and set Meg's heart at rest," thought John, creeping to the bedside, hoping to find his rebellious heir asleep.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the days of the Regency.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Consider, my father's heir: the future representative of the family.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Heir and only child, Lord Saltire.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then the entire village was dead, and the small peasant, as sole heir, became a rich man.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
