In*her"it*ance (?), n. [Cf. OF.
enheritance.]
1. The act or state of inheriting; as, the
inheritance of an estate; the inheritance of mental or
physical qualities.
2. That which is or may be inherited; that
which is derived by an heir from an ancestor or other person; a
heritage; a possession which passes by descent.
When the man dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter.
Shak.
3. A permanent or valuable possession or
blessing, esp. one received by gift or without purchase; a
benefaction.
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away.
1 Pet. i. 4.
4. Possession; ownership; acquisition.
"The inheritance of their loves." Shak.
To you th' inheritance belongs by right
Of brother's praise; to you eke 'longs his love.
Spenser.
5. (Biol.) Transmission and reception
by animal or plant generation.
6. (Law) A perpetual or continuing
right which a man and his heirs have to an estate; an estate which a
man has by descent as heir to another, or which he may transmit to
another as his heir; an estate derived from an ancestor to an heir in
course of law. Blackstone.
&fist; The word inheritance (used simply) is mostly
confined to the title to land and tenements by a descent. Mozley
& W.
Men are not proprietors of what they have, merely for
themselves; their children have a title to part of it which comes to
be wholly theirs when death has put an end to their parents' use of
it; and this we call inheritance.
Locke.
