What is an "entitlement"?

I know that this may sound like a silly question but this word, “entitlement”, confuses me, especially in the current parlance surrounding the debate over budget cuts in Washington.
Merriam-Webster offers three definitions of the word:

1. a : the state or condition of being entitled : right
b : a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract
2: a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; also : funds supporting or distributed by such a program
3: belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges

Based on these definitions we can eliminate #3, as what Congress is doing has nothing to do with anyone’s beliefs, with the exception of those who try to ram Christian-centric laws through without considering their consequences on everyone else, but I digress.

We can also eliminate #1a, for a similar reason, i.e., it is focused on a “state or condition”.
This leaves us with #s 1.b and 2, both of which cover benefits and programs. But exactly what is considered a benefit or a program? Is the safety and security provided to us by the Department of Defense an entitlement? It is certainly a benefit “specified especially by law or contract”, i.e., the Constitution.

Are the trials provided by the judicial system an entitlement? They is certainly a benefit “specified especially by law or contract”, i.e., the Constitution.

There are many more examples, but I think that you get the point here. We never hear about this kind of stuff when the politicians quack about cutting entitlements. It is always things that involve the direct payout of funds to the populace that are intended to maintain or improve their quality of life, e.g., welfare, food stamps, Social Security, unemployment, Medicare, etc. And what do all of these have in common? They help the least among us, a Jesus thing. Sorry for reverting back to that topic.

The point of all of this rambling is that everything that the government does is actually an “entitlement”. Let’s stop using this word as code for “something that someone else gets that I don’t, so it has to be a waste of money”.