verb
Freq #48790
Meanings
-
1
verb
to prevent someone from receiving property or money that they would otherwise inherit, especially by changing a will
The landowner threatened to disinherit any heir who sold the estate.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
Opposites
Word family
Forms
disinherited
Etymology
From Middle English disenheriten, formed from dis-, expressing removal or deprivation, + inherit. The legal sense is literal: to remove a person's expected right to inherit, usually through a will. It can imply disowning, but the core meaning concerns succession to property.