entitled

1. 1
   adjective

   Holding a right or claim to something, whether in law or on moral grounds.

   As the registered owner, he is entitled to compensation for the storm damage.

   Veterans are entitled to a range of benefits under federal law.

   Similareligible, qualified

   Oppositeineligible

   Note

   The right may be legal or moral, and the word nearly always travels with to, followed by a noun or a verb: entitled to compensation, entitled to run for president. Watch the verb in front of it. Is entitled states a claim. Feels entitled, as in he feels entitled to respect, makes it the person's own belief, the first step toward the "demanding and pretentious" sense.

2. 2
   adjectivefiguratively

   Believing without good reason that one deserves special treatment or privileges; demanding and pretentious.

   Her entitled attitude made it hard for anyone on the team to work with her.

   Critics called the heir spoiled and entitled, accustomed to getting whatever he wanted.

   Similarspoiled, presumptuous, arrogant, demanding

   Oppositehumble, modest

   Note

   The sense psychologists measure. W. Keith Campbell's When You Love a Man Who Loves Himself (2005) describes testing whether "highly entitled people" would take candy from children. Unlike the "right or claim" sense, it needs no to. It stands alone before a noun (entitled people) and grades freely (highly entitled, more entitled). It is almost always a criticism, so calling someone entitled is a judgment rather than a description.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of entitle.

   The merger entitled shareholders to additional voting rights.

   A clerical error entitled hundreds of customers to unexpected rebates.

   Note

   A regular past form: entitle adds -d, and one spelling serves as both past tense and participle. The verb takes a person, then to plus a noun or verb, as in entitled shareholders to rights or entitled her to speak. In the passive it shades into the "having a right" adjective. Grading tells them apart: only the adjective takes more entitled or very entitled.

4. 4
   adjective

   Given or bearing a specific name as its title, as a book, film, or other work.

   The exhibition opened with a painting entitled "Composition VII."

   They watched a documentary entitled "Planet in Peril."

   Similartitled, called, named

   Note

   The literal sense, closest to the noun title itself. It follows what it names, as in a painting entitled… or her book is entitled…. The title comes directly after it, usually in quotation marks or italics, with nothing in between. That plain, labeling job sets it apart from the figurative uses that grew around the word's idea of a rightful claim.

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