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ENDOWMENT
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of endowing with a permanent source of income
Example:
his generous endowment of the laboratory came just in the nick of time
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("endowment" is a kind of...):
gift; giving (the act of giving)
Derivation:
endow (furnish with an endowment)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Natural abilities or qualities
Synonyms:
endowment; gift; natural endowment; talent
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("endowment" is a kind of...):
natural ability (ability that is inherited)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "endowment"):
bent; hang; knack (a special way of doing something)
flair; genius (a natural talent)
raw talent (powerfully impressive talent)
Derivation:
endow (give qualities or abilities to)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The capital that provides income for an institution
Synonyms:
endowment; endowment fund
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Hypernyms ("endowment" is a kind of...):
capital (wealth in the form of money or property owned by a person or business and human resources of economic value)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "endowment"):
patrimony (a church endowment)
chantry (an endowment for the singing of Masses)
Derivation:
endow (furnish with an endowment)
Context examples:
The women of the island have abundance of vivacity: they contemn their husbands, and are exceedingly fond of strangers, whereof there is always a considerable number from the continent below, attending at court, either upon affairs of the several towns and corporations, or their own particular occasions, but are much despised, because they want the same endowments.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
To see moral grandeur rising out of cesspools of iniquity; to rise himself and first glimpse beauty, faint and far, through mud-dripping eyes; to see out of weakness, and frailty, and viciousness, and all abysmal brutishness, arising strength, and truth, and high spiritual endowment—
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
In addition to what has been already said of Catherine Morland's personal and mental endowments, when about to be launched into all the difficulties and dangers of a six weeks' residence in Bath, it may be stated, for the reader's more certain information, lest the following pages should otherwise fail of giving any idea of what her character is meant to be, that her heart was affectionate; her disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind—her manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; her person pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty—and her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
But this description, I confess, does by no means affect the British nation, who may be an example to the whole world for their wisdom, care, and justice in planting colonies; their liberal endowments for the advancement of religion and learning; their choice of devout and able pastors to propagate Christianity; their caution in stocking their provinces with people of sober lives and conversations from this the mother kingdom; their strict regard to the distribution of justice, in supplying the civil administration through all their colonies with officers of the greatest abilities, utter strangers to corruption; and, to crown all, by sending the most vigilant and virtuous governors, who have no other views than the happiness of the people over whom they preside, and the honour of the king their master.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
