birthright : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: birthright	by the DICT Development Group
3 results for birthright
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
birthright n a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth; "free public education is the birthright of every American child" an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture) Synonym(s): birthright, patrimony personal characteristics that are inherited at birth
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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. Lest there be any . . . profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. --Heb. xii. 16.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
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.