Entail
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɛnˈteɪl/
- Rhymes: -eɪl
Origin
From Old English entaile ("carving"), from Old French entaille ("incision"), from entailler ("to notch, (literally) to cut in"); from prefix en- + tailler ("to cut"), from Late Latin taliare, from Latin talea. Compare late Latin feudum talliatum ("a fee entailed, i.e., curtailed or limited").
Full definition of entail
Noun
entail
(plural entails)- That which is entailed. Hence:An estate in fee entailed, or limited in descent to a particular class of issue.The rule by which the descent is fixed.
- A power of breaking the ancient entails, and of alienating their estates. — David Hume.
- (obsolete) Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio.
- A work of rich entail. — Edmund Spenser.
Verb
- (transitive) To imply or require.This activity will entail careful attention to detail.
- (transitive) To settle or fix inalienably on a person or thing, or on a person and his descendants or a certain line of descendants; -- said especially of an estate; to bestow as a heritage.
- Allowing them to entail their estates. — David Hume.
- I here entail The crown to thee and to thine heirs forever. — Shakespeare
- (transitive, obsolete) To appoint hereditary possessor.
- To entail him and his heirs unto the crown. — Shakespeare
- (transitive, obsolete) To cut or carve in an ornamental way.
- Entailed with curious antics. — Edmund Spenser.