To limit or restrict; to cut off or deprive of something.
From prefix 'be-' + 'tail' (from Old French 'tailler,' to cut). Originally meaning to cut off, it came to mean to curtail or limit rights and privileges.
In feudal times, an estate could be 'betailed' — its inheritance restricted to a specific line of heirs, cutting off other possibilities — which is why we still say 'entailed' estates in property law.
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