Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EN-TAIL', n. [Fr. entailler, to cut, from tailler, It. tagliare, id. Feudum talliatum, a fee entailed, abridged, curtailed, limited.]

1. An estate or fee entailed, or limited in descent to a particular heir or heirs. Estates-tail are general, as when lands and tenements are given to one and the heirs of his body begotten; or special, as when lands and tenements are given to one and the heirs of his body by a particular wife. Blackstone.
2. Rule of descent settled for an estate.
3. Engraver's work; inlay. [Obs.] Spenser.