entail

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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• IPA^(key): /ɛnˈteɪl/, /ɪnˈteɪl/, /ənˈteɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Etymology 1

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”).

Verb

entail (third-person singular simple present entails, present participle entailing, simple past and past participle entailed)

1. (transitive) To imply or require.

   This activity will entail careful attention to detail.

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.
   • Allowing them to entail their estates. — David Hume.
   • I here entail The crown to thee and to thine heirs forever. — Shakespeare
3. (transitive, obsolete) To appoint hereditary possessor.
   • To entail him and his heirs unto the crown. — Shakespeare
4. (transitive, obsolete) To cut or carve in an ornamental way.
   • Entailed with curious antics. — Edmund Spenser.

Derived terms

• entailment

Translations

to imply or require

• Catalan: implicar (ca)
• Dutch: verlangen (nl)
• Finnish: sisältää (fi), tuoda mukanaan
• French: comporter (fr), impliquer (fr), requérir (fr)
• German: bedingen (de), mit sich bringen, nach sich ziehen, verursachen (de)
• Ido: necesigar (io)
• Italian: comportare (it), implicare (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Occitan: implicar, comportar, requèrre
• Persian: مستلزم بودن (mostalzem budan), ایجاب کردن (ijâb kardan)
• Portuguese: implicar (pt), pressupor (pt), requerer (pt)
• Russian: тре́бовать (ru) (trébovatʹ), влечь (ru) (vlečʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: zahtijevati (sh)
• Spanish: conllevar (es)

to settle or fix inalienably on a person or thing

• French: conférer (fr), accorder (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: als unveräußerliches Gut vererben

Etymology 2

From Middle English entaille (“carving”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French entaille (“incision”), from the verb entailler. See above.

Noun

entail (plural entails)

1. That which is entailed. Hence:
   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.
   • A power of breaking the ancient entails, and of alienating their estates. — David Hume.
2. (obsolete) Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio.
   • A work of rich entail. — Edmund Spenser.

Translations

That which is entailed

• French: entail (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “entail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Latine