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Definition
the invested money that provides income for an institution; or an instance of giving such moneyor:
abilities or qualities — especially those that are nature-given
- We have a ten million dollar endowment to fight Malaria in Ghana.
endowment = gift of money
- Her generous endowment to the foundation made the work possible.
- She believes each of us should build on our unique natural endowments of talent and interests.
- This vocal organ was in itself a rich endowment, insomuch that a listener, comprehending nothing of the language in which the preacher spoke, might still have been swayed to and fro by the mere tone and cadence.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- ...integrity, that, like most of his other endowments, lay in a somewhat heavy mass, and was just as unmalleable or unmanageable as a ton of iron ore;Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- Never was there a more beautiful example of how the majesty of age and wisdom may comport with the obeisance and respect enjoined upon it, as from a lower social rank, and inferior order of endowment, towards a higher.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- As he possessed no higher attribute, and neither sacrificed nor vitiated any spiritual endowment by devoting all his energies and ingenuities to subserve the delight and profit of his maw, it always pleased and satisfied me to hear him expatiate on fish, poultry, and butcher's meat, and the most eligible methods of preparing them for the table.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- In that old day the English settler on these rude shores—having left king, nobles, and all degrees of awful rank behind, while still the faculty and necessity of reverence was strong in him—bestowed it on the white hair and venerable brow of age—on long-tried integrity—on solid wisdom and sad-coloured experience—on endowments of that grave and weighty order which gave the idea of permanence, and comes under the general definition of respectability.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- The Vengeance and the Juryman, looking after her as she walked away, were highly appreciative of her fine figure, and her superb moral endowments.Charles Dickens -- A Tale of Two Cities
- You must not suppose it to be a fine endowment.Charles Dickens -- Bleak House
- The endowment policy, the bank passbook, the certificate of the possession of scrip.James Joyce -- Ulysses
- It is not personal, but mental endowments they have given you: you are formed for labour, not for love.Charlotte Bronte -- Jane Eyre
- The colleges are heavy with gifts and endowments.John Steinbeck -- Travels with Charley
- I happen to have a short but slender thumb, and that proves I'm really compatible with a short, slender man with "average" endowments.Julia Alvarez -- In the Time of the Butterflies
- You get a box of Saran Wrap and you tear off as much as you need for your particular endowment.Don DeLillo -- Underworld
- His distinguishing endowment was his power to dream: in sleep he could visit the remotest regions and consort with immortals in the supernatural realm.Joseph Campbell -- The Hero With a Thousand Faces
- We really inherit nothing at all, save for occasional endowments of property and cash.Roger Zelazny -- Lord of Light
- With this wisdom of life, is the equal endowment of imaginative and of lyric power.Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Selected Essays
- The last time I saw him, which was a few months before he died, he gave me fifty thousand dollars toward our endowment fund.Booker T. Washington -- Up From Slavery: An Autobiography
- —Was there no convent of Saxon endowment, where he could be received?Sir Walter Scott -- Ivanhoe
endowment = money given
endowments = abilities or qualities
endowment = gift (or natural ability)
endowments = gifts (nature-given qualities)
endowment = natural abilities or accomplishments
endowment = gift (natural ability)
endowments = accomplishments or natural gifts