entailment

Noun

entailment (countable and uncountable, plural entailments)

1. The act of logically entailing, the state of being entailed, or something that is entailed.
   • Entailment does not imply causation: if a set of premisses entail a conclusion, that does not mean (necessarily) that they cause that conclusion to be true.
   • An argument hinges upon entailment whereas an if-then sentence hinges upon implication.
2. The act of setting up an entail to restrict inheritance.
   • That no entailment of lands shall continue to entail Robinson etc. the same, in any case whatever, longer than the life of the person to whom the same hath been, or shall be, first devised, by such entailment.1875, New Jersey Law Reports - Volume 5, page 814
   • On the other hand, the "perpetual entailment of estates" was a favorite of the common law,—supporting, as it did, the right of primogeniture, and growing out of the feudal system.1903, The Pacific Reporter - Volume 71, page 292
3. (nonstandard) An entail.
   • And notwithstanding this turning clause was put in, yet it was afterwards construed to be a will giving an entailment of the real property to the old man's grandchildren, which was not the case.1890, Robert Andrew Sherrard, Thomas Johnson Sherrard ·, The Sherrard Family of Steubenville, page 241
   • Her answer cannily goes to the mercenary heart of the substance of Wortley's letter: the failure of the marriage negotiation because of his refusual to pay the price of placing an entailment on his estate .2002, Susan M. Fitzmaurice, The Familiar Letter in Early Modern English, page 213