Definition of "intestate" [in•tes•tate]

• Having made no legal will: an intestate parent. (adjective)
• Not disposed of by a legal will: intestate lands. (adjective)
• One who dies without a legal will. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This removed land in intestate estates from the repercussions of primogeniture and stipulated a division along the same lines as chattels: one-third to the widow for her lifetime, ultimately to devolve to the children of the marriage; two-thirds equally divided among the children."
• "Declaring that primogeniture and impartible inheritance were inappropriate for Newfoundland circumstances, the act provided that real property in intestate estates should be distributed, like personal property, as chattel interests."
• "Even before the passage of the Chattels Real Act, however, southern Avalon courts had tended to favor the distribution of real property in intestate estates as chattels real."