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final wishes

final wishes

2 4.9
A person's last requests about their care or belongings at the end of life
  • noun
translation icon : últimos deseos
  • We didn't know any of his final wishes and were left to sort it all out as his illness (cancer, 3rd time) progressed.
  • know her final wishes

Examples

  • Rigdol was deeply affected by his father's untimely death and devastated by his own helplessness in fulfilling his father's final wish.

    Blog text (2)
  • Wasn't it her final wish that they be reconciled?

    Fiction book (1997)
  • - I say we respect his final wish.

  • What matters is it was her final wish.

  • I say, we just let him turn, and then give him his final wish.

  • My final wish is I wanna go back to the morning my dad found you.

  • Please, Mr. Kiefer, we are talking about your mother's final wishes.

  • We gathered to honor her final wishes during the memorial service.

  • It was important to her family to respect his final wishes after he passed away.

  • As her executor, I made sure to fulfill her final wishes as detailed in the will.

How Final

testament
  • Formal
17 4.9
final wishes
2 4.9
request
1.0
wish
474 1.0

Surface Forms

final wishes singular
final wishes plural

Morphology

final + wish

The meaning 'a person's last requests or desires' is directly derivable from combining 'final' (last, concluding) with 'wishes' (desires or requests). This simple adjective + noun composition follows standard, cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Final wishes comes from the image of a person on their deathbed saying their final wishes, the last things they want. Because people often put these requests in a will or tell family about them, final wishes now means 'a person's last requests or desires', especially about what should happen after they die.