Entail Definition

ĕn-tāl, ĭn-

entailed, entails

verb

entailed, entails

To limit the inheritance of (real property) to a specific line or class of heirs.

Webster's New World

To cause or require as a necessary consequence; involve; necessitate.

The plan entails work.

Webster's New World

To bestow or impose on a person or a specified succession of heirs.

American Heritage

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.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

noun

entails

The act of entailing, especially property.

American Heritage

An entailing or being entailed.

Webster's New World

The state of being entailed.

American Heritage

That which is entailed, as an estate.

Webster's New World

Necessary sequence, as the order of descent for an entailed inheritance.

Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Entail

Singular:

entail

Plural:

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”).

From Wiktionary
Middle English entaillen to limit inheritance to specific heirs en- intensive pref. en–¹ taille tail tail²

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition