Definition of endow in English:

verb

• 1Give or bequeath an income or property to (a person or institution)

  ‘he endowed the Church with lands’

  More example sentences

  • ‘This God endowed him with these gifts since he passed the test, and showed love.’
  • ‘For the parent keen to endow their child with an educational edge, shared reading is an obvious stepping stone.’
  • ‘‘I endow ordinary people with love and sincerity,’ she said.’
  • ‘‘It endows the people, not the president, with the right to decide on military action,’ she said.’
  • ‘Therefore, God endows each person with unique talents and attributes necessary for him to fulfill his task.’
  • ‘Democracy endows people with the right to decide their own future.’
  • ‘Iain is grateful to both parents for endowing him with an indomitable spirit and an iron will.’
  • ‘A basic purpose of higher education is to endow students with the knowledge and capacity to exercise responsible and independent judgment.’
  • ‘When you consider how beautiful the car park is now, and the wonderful beach that nature has endowed us with, how can these people come along and spoil the area with their rubbish?’
  • ‘The Mojave and Kiowa American Indian people believed dreams endowed supernatural abilities for fighting and hunting.’
  • ‘The tensions within individuals and societies, within establishments and systems, endow writing with a sense of time, and in turn writing gives direction to the times.’

  Synonyms

  pass on, pass down

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Establish (a university post, annual prize, etc.) by donating the funds needed to maintain it.
     ‘he endowed three chairs at Liverpool University’
     More example sentences

     • ‘At Adelaide, Henderson taught imperial and colonial history, and arranged for a local benefactor to endow a prize for work on South Australian history written from the original records.’
     • ‘The Pake Prize was endowed in 1983 in recognition of the achievements of George Pake, a research physicist and director of industrial research.’
     • ‘Over the years the Hollywood director has made financial contributions to scouting facilities and endowed a cinematography award for aspiring scout film-makers.’
     • ‘All of the speakers were careful to point out that Rhodes was a very bad man who happened to do some very good things, such as endowing the Scholarship Fund.’
     • ‘Further, had he won, he intended to use the 200 000 leva prize money to endow a church and scholarships for gifted children.’
     • ‘They've had a chair endowed from outside funds.’
     • ‘Yale created its first endowed Chair to recognize the achievements of an African American in your honor.’
     • ‘He was instrumental in attracting funds to endow a visiting lectureship series and three professorships, the first such endowments in the College of Agriculture.’
     • ‘Board members and others in the community are raising funds to endow the center in his honor.’
     • ‘Universities that were endowed by us have fallen so far behind that we cannot any longer recognise their degrees.’
     • ‘He founded and endowed the Abercromby Chair of Archaeology in the University of Edinburgh.’
     • ‘A donation of more than a half million dollars in 1976 endowed a Chair in the American Catholic Church History at the University.’
     • ‘He is a self-employed professor who endowed his own chair and granted himself tenure.’
     • ‘He has given $50,000 in personal funds to endow two scholarships for students of disadvantaged backgrounds.’
     • ‘Later he would endow this chair with his own money.’
     • ‘Towards the end of the 17th century, land was bequeathed by a certain John Kershaw to endow a school in Waterfoot.’
     • ‘The landowner would have a very big say in who was appointed to the various livings and would frequently endow the churches and provide running expenses.’
     • ‘The Merck Endowment Fund is a permanently restricted net asset to endow the Rufus A. Lyman Award.’
     • ‘Lord Nuffield endowed educational and medical activities through the British United Provident Association, the Nuffield Foundation, and Nuffield College of Oxford University.’
     • ‘Eleven schools have awards endowed and several more indicated plans to seek endowments.’
     Synonyms

     finance, fund, pay for, donate money for, give money towards, provide capital for, subsidize, support financially

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• 2Provide with a quality, ability, or asset.

  ‘he was endowed with tremendous physical strength’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Love is part of the nature of God, and humans were endowed with the ability to love as part of being ‘created in His image’.’
  • ‘It has been endowed with a mystic quality.’
  • ‘Actually, the larvae of most coral reef fishes are endowed with good swimming abilities, good sensory systems, and sophisticated behavior that is quite flexible.’
  • ‘Recent evidence indicates that some birds are also capable of UV vision and that insects and fish are endowed with the ability to perceive UV polarized light.’
  • ‘You have also been endowed with the ability to command and control.’
  • ‘Everybody is endowed with the ability to make ethical judgments.’
  • ‘Maria, Blanca, and Lucy are not in any way superhuman, nor are they endowed with amazing abilities.’
  • ‘Geographically, this region is endowed with tremendous diversity of hills, valleys, forests, grazing lands, streams, and canals.’
  • ‘You are aware, of course, that she is insane, but she is also endowed with formidable psychic gifts.’
  • ‘In addition he was endowed by a dynamic personality, buoyant spirit, and had immense personal magnetism, saintly kindliness and charity, displaying neither envy nor malice.’
  • ‘A Chinese woman who claims she is endowed with a special gift that allows her to heal others was deported from Taiwan yesterday.’
  • ‘Such a demand has been answered by computer manufacturers who are competing to produce laptops of smaller size and lighter weight endowed with wireless capabilities.’

  Synonyms

  provide, supply, furnish, equip, invest, give, present, favour, bless, grace, award, gift, confer, bestow, enrich, arm

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  1. 2.1be endowedinformal Have breasts or a penis of specified size.
     ‘the girl on page three is well endowed’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Usually to be endowed with large breasts is seen as a benefit in more ways than one.’
     • ‘Even perfectly endowed Indian women would feel uncomfortable wearing a bikini in public.’
     • ‘More to the point, I'm wondering if you've ever been with a guy who was well endowed?’
     • ‘If women hear a guy is well endowed all of a sudden they are really curious.’