Tail

3 Fee-tail, as descriptive of an estate in lands, was borrowed from the feudists, among whom it signified any mutilated or truncated inheritance from which the heirs general were "cut off."^ Sntail.

1, V. To restrict an inheritance to a class of issue or descendants.

Opposed, disentail: to bar an estate in tail.

3, n.

An estate iu tail; an estatertail. The words formerly employed in creating the estate were " heirs (male or female) of the body " of a particular person; but other expressions, such as "issue forever," and "posterity," have been held to be of not less extensive import. Where the estate is not recognized, language which, formerly, would have created it will be construed to create a fee-simple.* Entailments are generally abolished in the United States; where retained, they may be barred, as, by a deed from the tenant. Our law favors free alienation, q. V. In England the law has been so modified as to remove the more serious inconveniences that attended' such estates."

See further Fee, 1.