Forms: 6 entiertee, 7, 9 entierty, 8 entierity, 9– entirety. Also 7 intierty. [ad. AF. entiertie, OF. entiereté:—L. integritāt-em, f. integer: see ENTIRE.]
Johnson 1755 has only the form entierty, which continued in legal use into the present century.
1. The state or condition of being entire; completeness, fullness, integrity, perfection; esp. in phrase In its entirety: in its complete form, as a whole.
1548. Gest, Pr. Masse, 89. Deragotorye to the entiertee and fulnes of Christes ones sacrifice.
1630. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 163. They haue an intirety, a fulnesse in themselues.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., II. 183 (R.). This is the natural and regular consequence of the union and entirety of their interest.
1847. J. Wilson, Chr. North (1857), I. 259. Its entirety—its unity, which is so perfect.
1853. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. xv. 181. The Christian Church taken in its entirety.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 183–4. All chance of fulfilling it [his religious mission] in its entirety had passed away for ever.
b. Law. The entire or undivided possession of an estate; esp. in phrase By entireties, when two parties are jointly seised of a whole estate, and neither is exclusive possessor of a part. Cf. MOIETY.
1598. Bacon, Office of Alienations, Wks. 1730, III. 559. Sometimes the attorney … setteth down an entierty, where but a moiety, a third or fourth part only was to be passed.
1613. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 10. They shall not haue the land by entierties, but by moities ioyntly.
1809. Bawdwen, Domesday Bk., 615. Rayner claims the Entierty of the Church.
1818. Cruise, Digest, V. 356. A husband seised jointly with his wife, whether by moieties or entireties.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, II. 7. A purchaser cannot be compelled, even in equity, to take an undivided part of an estate … if he contracted for the entirety.
2. The whole; the sum total.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. i. 21. You have the entirety of our outfit.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. p. xxiv. These other characters must relate to the entirety of the organism as such.
1885. Times, 4 July, 18/1. The entirety containing about 26 acres.
