To disinherit someone, especially your son or daughter, is to take away their legal right to receive your money or property after you die. You do this in a will, or by changing a will. Though actually, in loose talk people also use it when a parent “cuts someone off” from the family money, even before death. Strictly, the word is about the share after death — the legal right. It is not the same as disown, which is more about refusing the relationship itself. You can disinherit a child and still speak to them; you can disown someone without a will ever coming into it. It is a formal, legal-feeling verb. You will meet it in news about families, wills, and court cases.

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