entail

Meanings

1. To imply, require, or invoke.
2. 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.
3. To appoint hereditary possessor.

1. That which is entailed.
2. An estate in fee entailed, or limited in descent to a particular class of issue.
3. The rule by which the descent is fixed.
4. Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio.

Etymology

From Middle English entaillen, from Old French entaillier, 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”).

Translations