n. [ Cf. OF. enheritance. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act or state of inheriting; as, the inheritance of an estate; the inheritance of mental or physical qualities. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

When the man dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A permanent or valuable possession or blessing, esp. one received by gift or without purchase; a benefaction. [ 1913 Webster ]

To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. 1 Pet. i. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Possession; ownership; acquisition. “The inheritance of their loves.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To you th' inheritance belongs by right
Of brother's praise; to you eke 'longs his love. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Biol.) Transmission and reception by animal or plant generation. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The word inheritance (used simply) is mostly confined to the title to land and tenements by a descent. Mozley & W. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]