Entrail
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 singular of entrails; an internal organ of an animal. form-of, singular, usually
"She might even bust an entrail if she went on a little farther in the official code"
- 2 Entanglement; fold. archaic
""About her cursed head, whose folds displaid / Were stretcht now forth at length without entraile.""
- 1 To interweave or bind. archaic
"And in the thickest covert of that shade / There was a pleasant arbour, not by art / But of the trees' own inclination made, / With wanton ivy twine entrailed athwart, / And eglantine and caprifole among, / Fashioned above within their inmost part / That neither Phoebus' beams could through them throng / Nor AEolus' sharp blast could work them any wrong."
- 2 To outline in black.
"A cross entrailed."
Example
More examples"And in the thickest covert of that shade / There was a pleasant arbour, not by art / But of the trees' own inclination made, / With wanton ivy twine entrailed athwart, / And eglantine and caprifole among, / Fashioned above within their inmost part / That neither Phoebus' beams could through them throng / Nor AEolus' sharp blast could work them any wrong."
Etymology
From en- + trail.
From Middle English entraille, from Old French entraille (compare modern French entrailles), from Late Latin intrālia, modification of Latin intrānea, contraction of interāneum (“gut, intestine”), substantive of interāneus (“internal, inward”).