Definition of "entail"

entail¹

/ɛnˈteɪl/

verb
third-person singular simple present entails, present participle entailing, simple past and past participle entailed
1. (transitive) To imply, require, or invoke.
2. (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.
  Quotations
  Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his.
  1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], page 50
  Allowing them to entail their estates.
  1754-1762, David Hume, The History of England
  I here entail The crown to thee and to thine heirs forever.
  c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]
  Apparently, Henry VII visited the city [Bristol] in 1487, "taking care to entail a sumptuary fine on the citizens because their wives dressed too gaudily".
  2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 55
3. (transitive, obsolete) To appoint hereditary possessor.
  Quotations
  To entail him and his heirs unto the crown.
  c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To cut or carve in an ornamental way.
  Quotations
  All bard with golden bendes, which were entayld / With curious antickes
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 27

entail²

/ɛnˈteɪl/

noun
plural entails
1. That which is entailed.
  Quotations
  A power of breaking the ancient entails, and of alienating their estates.
  1754-1762, David Hume, The History of England
  1. An estate in fee entailed, or limited in descent to a particular class of issue.
  2. The rule by which the descent is fixed.
    Quotations
    All land acquired by inheritance must follow the Khasi law of entail, by which property descends from the mother to the youngest daughter, and again from the latter to her youngest daughter.
    1907, Philip Richard Thornhagh Gurdon, The Khasis, page 88
2. (obsolete) Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio.
  Quotations
  A worke of rich entayle.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 4

Definition of "entail"

entail1

verb

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entail2

noun

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entail¹

entail²