entail

[verb en-teyl; noun en-teyl, en-teyl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR entail ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

to cause or involve by necessity or as a consequence: a loss entailing no regret.

to impose as a burden: Success entails hard work.

Law. to limit the passage of (a landed estate) to a specified line of heirs, so that it cannot be alienated, devised, or bequeathed.

Law. to cause (anything) to descend to a fixed series of possessors.

noun

the act of entailing.

Law. the state of being entailed.

any predetermined order of succession, as to an office.

Law. something that is entailed, as an estate.

Law. the rule of descent settled for an estate.

Origin of entail

1350–1400; Middle English entailen (v.), entail (noun). See en-¹, tail²

Related formsen·tail·er, nounen·tail·ment, nounnon·en·tailed, adjectivepre·en·tail, verb (used with object)un·en·tailed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for entailed

require, necessitate, encompass, involve, entangle, impose, evoke, demand, occasion, tangle, cause

Examples from the Web for entailed

Contemporary Examples of entailed

When one thinks of that, and the responsibility it entailed, it makes the hairs on the back of the neck move.
Blood in the Sand: When James Jones Wrote a Grunt’s View of D-Day
James Jones
November 15, 2014
Twice in the past two weeks, this has entailed meeting a plane on the runway to retriever sick passengers who may be infected.
Ebola Panic Is Worse Than the Disease
Abby Haglage
October 9, 2014
I guess they were rightly afraid of what they might have heard, of what the answering might have entailed for us all.
Possessed by PTSD, A Veteran Uses Exorcisms to Cast Out His Demons
Brian Van Reet
February 2, 2014
Enlightened liberalism, you see, entailed a certain courtesy, precision, evidence, reasoning.
Tony Lewis, American, Jew, Remembered
Bernard Avishai
October 24, 2013
The recession, and all it entailed—unemployment, stagnating wages, etc.—surely played a part.
Young Americans Are Abandoning Car Ownership and Driving
William O’Connor
July 5, 2013

Historical Examples of entailed

But, as Laura Ann said, it entailed things, notably industry.
Four Girls and a Compact
Annie Hamilton Donnell
The rag jammed in the barrel and entailed a hard pull to extract it.
The Hound From The North
Ridgwell Cullum
Entailed on the baby about to be born, if he happens to be a boy.
Is He Popenjoy?
Anthony Trollope
You know the law about succeeding to peerages and entailed lands?
Tristram of Blent
Anthony Hope
But I know too well that he is my father; and that he has entailed on me everlasting sorrow.
Ernest Linwood
Caroline Lee Hentz

British Dictionary definitions for entailed

entail

verb (tr)

to bring about or impose by necessity; have as a necessary consequencethis task entails careful thought

property law to restrict (the descent of an estate) to a designated line of heirs

logic to have as a necessary consequence

noun

property law

the restriction imposed by entailing an estate
an estate that has been entailed

Derived Formsentailer, noun

Word Origin for entail

C14: entaillen, from en- 1 + taille limitation, tail ²

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for entailed

entail

mid-14c., "convert (an estate) into 'fee tail' (feudum talliatum)," from en- (1) "make" + taile "legal limitation," especially of inheritance, ruling who succeeds in ownership and preventing it from being sold off, from Anglo-French taile, Old French taillie, past participle of taillier "allot, cut to shape," from Late Latin taliare. Sense of "have consequences" is 1829, from notion of "inseparable connection." Related: Entailed; entailling.