birthright

4 definitions found

birthright - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Birthright \Birth"right`\, 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.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Lest there be any . . . profane person, as Esau, who
           for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. --Heb. xii.
                                                    16.
     [1913 Webster]

birthright - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  birthright
      n 1: a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth;
           "free public education is the birthright of every American
           child"
      2: an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by
         primogeniture) [syn: birthright, patrimony]
      3: personal characteristics that are inherited at birth

birthright - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Birthright
  (1.) This word denotes the special privileges and advantages
  belonging to the first-born son among the Jews. He became the
  priest of the family. Thus Reuben was the first-born of the
  patriarchs, and so the priesthood of the tribes belonged to him.
  That honour was, however, transferred by God from Reuben to Levi
  (Num. 3:12, 13; 8:18).
  
    (2.) The first-born son had allotted to him also a double
  portion of the paternal inheritance (Deut. 21:15-17). Reuben
  was, because of his undutiful conduct, deprived of his
  birth-right (Gen. 49:4; 1 Chr. 5:1). Esau transferred his
  birth-right to Jacob (Gen. 25:33).
  
    (3.) The first-born inherited the judicial authority of his
  father, whatever it might be (2 Chr. 21:3). By divine
  appointment, however, David excluded Adonijah in favour of
  Solomon.
  
    (4.) The Jews attached a sacred importance to the rank of
  "first-born" and "first-begotten" as applied to the Messiah
  (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18; Heb. 1:4-6). As first-born he has an
  inheritance superior to his brethren, and is the alone true
  priest.

birthright - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  52 Moby Thesaurus words for "birthright":
     appanage, appurtenance, authority, bequeathal, bequest,
     borough-English, claim, coheirship, conjugal right, coparcenary,
     demand, divine right, droit, due, entail, faculty, gavelkind,
     heirloom, heirship, hereditament, heritable, heritage, heritance,
     inalienable right, incorporeal hereditament, inheritance, interest,
     law of succession, legacy, line of succession, mode of succession,
     natural right, patrimony, perquisite, postremogeniture, power,
     prerogative, prescription, presumptive right, pretense, pretension,
     primogeniture, privilege, proper claim, property right, reversion,
     right, succession, title, ultimogeniture, vested interest,
     vested right