Birthright
['bɜːθraɪt] or ['bɝθraɪt]
Definition
(noun.) personal characteristics that are inherited at birth.
(noun.) a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth; 'free public education is the birthright of every American child'.
(noun.) an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture).
Typist: Nathaniel--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Any right, privilege, or possession to which a person is entitled by birth, such as an estate descendible by law to an heir, or civil liberty under a free constitution; esp. the rights or inheritance of the first born.
Typed by Alice
Examples
- Birthright and habit must settle the business. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- And does it seem to me that I am about to deprive Harold Skimpole of his share in such possessions, which are his only birthright! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- But he who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage existed, and Judas Iscariot existed, and Castlereagh existed, and this man exists! Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- Colours and beauties so far subdued were, at least, the birthright of all. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- When men at length awoke to claim their birthright of freedom, they invented the printing-press and rediscovered gunpowder, with which to destroy the tyranny of both priests and kings. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
Checker: Scott