Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EN-TAIL', v.t.

1. To settle the descent of lands and tenements, by gift to a man and to certain heirs specified, so that neither the donee nor any subsequent possessor can alienate or bequeath it; as, to entail a manor to A. B. and to his eldest son, or to his heirs of his body begotten, or to his heirs by a particular wife.
2. To fix unalienably on a person or thing, or on a person and his descendants. By the apostasy, misery is supposed to be entailed on mankind. The intemperate often entail infirmities, diseases and ruin on their children.
3. [from the French verb.] To cut; to carve for ornament. Spenser.