(verb) – To settle or limit the succession to real property; to create an estate tail.
(noun) – A fee abridged or limited to the issue, or certain classes of issue, instead of descending to all the heirs. 1 Washb. Real Prop. 66; Cowell; 2 BL Comm. 112, note.
Entail, in legal treatises, is used to signify an estate tail, especially with reference to the restraint which such an estate imposes upon its owner, or, in other words, the points where in such an estate differs from an estate in fee simple. And this is often its popular sense; but sometimes it is, in popular language, used differently, so as to signify a succession of life estates, as when it is said that “an entail ends with A.,” meaning that A. is the first person who is entitled to bar or cut off the entail, being in law the first tenant in tail. Mozley A Whitley. Break or bar an entail. To free an estate from the limitations imposed by an entail and permit its free disposition, anciently by means of a fine or common recovery, but now by deed in which the tenant and next heir join. Quasi entail. An estate par autre vie may be granted, not only to a man and his heirs, but to a man and the heirs of his body, which is termed a “quasi entail” the interest so granted not being properly an estate tail, (for the statute De Donis applies only where the subject of the entail is an estate of inheritance,) but yet so far in the nature of an estate-tail that it will go to the heir of the body as special occupant during the life of the cestui que vie, in the same manner as an estate of inheritance would descend, if limited to the grantee and the heirs of his body. Wharton.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In the law of real property.
To go upon land for the purpose of taking possession of it. In strict usage, the entering is preliminary to the taking possession but in common parlance the entry is now merged in the taking possession. See ENTRY.
In practice. To place anything before a court, or upon or among the records, in a formal and regular manner, and usually in writing; as to “enter an appearance,” to “enter a judgment”. In this sense the word is nearly equivalent to setting down formally in writing, in either a full or abridged form. Entering judgments. The formal entry of the judgment on the rolls of the court which is necessary before bringing an appeal or an action on the judgment. Blatchford v. Newberry, 100 111. 491; Winstead v. Evans (Tex. Civ. App.) 33 S. W. 680; Coe v. Erb. 59 Ohio St. 259. 52 N. E. 640, 69 Am. St Rep. 764. Entering short. When bills not due are paid into a bank by a customer, it is the custom of some bankers not to carry the amount of the bills directly to his credit but to “enter them short” as it is called, i.e., to note down the receipt of the bills, their amounts, and the times when they become due in a previous column of the page, and the amounts when received are carried forward into the usual cash column. Sometimes, instead of entering such bills short bankers credit the customer directly with the amount of the bills as cash, charging interest on any advances they may make on their account and allow him at once to draw upon them to that amount. If the banker becomes, bankrupt, the property in bills entered short does not pass to his assignees, but the customer is entitled to them if they remain in his hands, or to their proceeds, if received, subject to any lien the banker may have upon them. Wharton.