entrail

en- +‎ trail

entrail (third-person singular simple present entrails, present participle entrailing, simple past and past participle entrailed)

1. (archaic) To interweave or bind.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene‎, Book III Canto VI:

     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.

   • 1598, William Cecil, letter to his son, reprinted in Annals of the reformation and establishment of religion, 1824, by John Strype, page 479,

     Trust not any with thy life, credit, or estate: for it is mere folly for a man to entrail himself to his friend; as though, occasion being offered, he shall not dare to become his enemy.

   • 1885, John Barlas, The Bloody Heart‎:

     Himself hid by entrailing foliage, / Betwixt whose leafy meshes he could see / That false pair's dalliance and badinage.

2. (heraldry) To outline in black.

   A cross entrailed.

   • 1847, Henry Gough, John Henry Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table ..., Oxford, page 124:

     "Entrailed: outlined, always with black lines. See Adumbration, and Cross entrailed."

   • 1775, Hugh Clark, Thomas Wormull, An Introduction to Heraldry: Containing the Origin and Use of Arms; Rules ..., H. Washbourne, page 122:

     "Entrailed, a Cross, P.7, n.20, Lee says, the colour need not be named, for it is always sable."

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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.tɹeɪl/, /ˈɛn.tɹəl/

entrail (plural entrails)

1. (usually used in the plural) singular of entrails; an internal organ of an animal.
   • 1957, Bill Bryson, “They Still Ride 'Em Rough”, in Baseball Digest, volume 16, number 8, page 57:

     She might even bust an entrail if she went on a little farther in the official code

   • 1922-1976, Liam O'Flaherty, “The Post Office”, in Liam O'Flaherty: the collected stories, page 55:

     Those blackguards have no more respect for an entrail, or a sinew, or a vital organ, than if they were gutting dog-fish.

   • 2006, Robert Ludlum, The Ambler Warning, page 427:

     Did an entrail-reading priest find something nasty in the offal?

2. (archaic) Entanglement; fold.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, page 1.1.18:

     "About her cursed head, whose folds displaid / Were stretcht now forth at length without entraile."

• innard, gut, tharm, intestine

• -traline, Latiner, art line, larnite, latrine, line art, ratline, reliant, retinal, trainel, trenail