heir

noun

1. 1

   Someone who inherits, or is designated to inherit, the property of another.

   My brother is the heir to our childhood house and yet has no interest in it.

   I am my father's heir and only son.

   As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]

   And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.

2. 2

   One who inherits, or has been designated to inherit, a hereditary title or office.

   As the heir to the British throne, the Prince of Wales is a very public figure.

   Now, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, William, 40, is the Prince of Wales and the heir to the British throne.

   Vittorio Emanuele, the Italian throne's last heir, was apprehended in 1978 after a teen died from a gunshot on an exclusive island.

3. 3

   A successor in a role, representing continuity with the predecessor.

   And I his heir in misery alone.

   "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came[…]and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins.[…]"

   India is run by gerontocrats and epigones: grey hairs and groomed heirs.

   Sergeant Schlock has no horse, no armor, and no sword, but even the mightiest Mongol horse-warrior would see in him a fit heir.

verb

1. 1

   To inherit.

   […] Leonard Houtz & John Myer to be executors to this my last will & testament & lastly my children shall heir equally, one as much as the other.

Forms

plural

heirs

past tense

heired

past participle

heired

present participle

heiring

third person singular

heirs