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tail

 - 14 dictionary results

tail

1  [teyl] ,
Use tail in a Sentence
–noun
1. the hindmost part of an animal, esp. that forming a distinct, flexible appendage to the trunk.
2. something resembling or suggesting this in shape or position: the tail of a kite.
3. Astronomy. the luminous stream extending from the head of a comet.
4. the reverse of a coin (opposed to head ).
5. Aeronautics. the after portion of an airplane or the like.
6. tails,
a. tail coat.
b. the tapering skirts or ends at the back of a coat, esp. a tail coat.
c. men's full-dress attire.
d. Distilling. alcohol obtained in the final distillation. Compare head (def. 22).
7. Slang. the buttocks or rump.
8. Informal. a person who trails or keeps a close surveillance of another, as a detective or spy: The police decided to put a tail on the suspect.
9. Informal. the trail of a fleeing person or animal: They put a detective on his tail.
10. Slang: Vulgar.
a. coitus.
b. a woman considered as a sexual object.
11. the hinder, bottom, or end part of anything; the rear.
12. a final or concluding part of a sentence, conversation, social gathering, etc.; conclusion; end: The tail of the speech was boring. Toward the tail of the concert I'd begun to get tired.
13. the inferior or unwanted part of anything.
14. a long braid or tress of hair.
15. an arrangement of objects or persons extending as or as if a tail.
16. a line of persons awaiting their turns at something; queue.
17. a retinue; train.
18. the lower part of a pool or stream.
19. the exposed portion of a piece of roofing, as a slate.
20. Printing, Bookbinding. the bottom of a page or book.
21. Printing. the lower portion of a type, as of g, y, or Q.
–adjective
22. coming from behind: a tail breeze.
23. being in the back or rear: the tail section of a plane.
–verb (used with object)
24. Informal. to follow in order to hinder escape of or to observe: to tail a suspect.
25. to form or furnish with a tail.
26. to form or constitute the tail or end of (a procession, retinue, etc.).
27. to terminate; come after or behind; follow like a tail.
28. to join or attach (one thing) at the tail or end of another.
29. Building Trades. to fasten (a beam, stone, etc.) by one end (usually fol. by in or into).
30. to dock the tail of (a horse, dog, etc.).
–verb (used without object)
31. to follow close behind: She always tails after her sister.
32. to disappear gradually or merge into: The path tails off into the woods.
33. to form, or move or pass in, a line or column suggestive of a tail: The hikers tailed up the narrow path.
34. (of a boat) to have or take a position with the stern in a particular direction.
35. Building Trades. (of a beam, stone, etc.) to be fastened by one end (usually fol. by in or into).
—Idioms
36. turn tail,
a. to turn one's back on, as in aversion or fright.
b. to run away from difficulty, opposition, etc.; flee: The sight of superior forces made the attackers turn tail.
37. with one's tail between one's legs, utterly humiliated; defeated; cowed: They were forced to retreat with their tails between their legs.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE tægl; c. ON tagl horse's tail, Goth tagl hair, MHG zagel tail, MLG tagel rope-end

Related forms:
tailer, noun
tailless, adjective
tail⋅less⋅ly, adverb
tail⋅less⋅ness, noun
taillike, adjective

tail

2  [teyl] Law.
–noun
1. the limitation of an estate to a person and the heirs of his or her body, or some particular class of such heirs.
–adjective
2. limited to a specified line of heirs; being in tail.
Origin:
1200–50; (n.) ME taille < OF, deriv. of taillier to cut < LL tāliāre (see tailor 1 ); (adj.) late ME taille < AF tailé cut, shaped, limited, ptp. of tailler

Related forms:
tailless, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To tail
tail 1   (tāl)   
n.  

  1. The posterior part of an animal, especially when elongated and extending beyond the trunk or main part of the body.

  2. The bottom, rear, or hindmost part: the tail of a shirt.

  3. The rear end of a wagon or other vehicle.

    1. The rear portion of the fuselage of an aircraft.

    2. An assembly of stabilizing planes and control surfaces in this rear portion.

    3. A formal evening costume typically worn by men.

    4. A tailcoat.

    5. Slang The buttocks.

    6. Vulgar Slang A sexual partner, especially a woman.

  5. The vaned rear portion of a bomb or missile.

  6. An appendage to the rear or bottom of a thing: the tail of a kite.

  7. The long luminous stream of gas and dust forced from the head of a comet when it is close to the sun.

  8. A braid of hair; a pigtail.

  9. Something that follows or takes the last place: the tail of a journey.

  10. A train of followers; a retinue.

  11. The end of a line of persons or things.

  12. The short closing line of certain stanzas of verse.

  13. The refuse or dross remaining from processes such as distilling or milling.

  14. Printing The bottom of a page; the bottom margin.

  15. (used with a sing. verb) The side of a coin not having the principal design and the date. Often used in the plural with a singular verb.

  16. Informal The trail of a person or an animal in flight.

  17. Informal A person assigned or employed to follow and report on someone else's movements and actions: The police put a tail on the suspected drug dealer.

  18. tails

    1. A formal evening costume typically worn by men.

    2. A tailcoat.

    3. Slang The buttocks.

    4. Vulgar Slang A sexual partner, especially a woman.

    1. Slang The buttocks.

    2. Vulgar Slang A sexual partner, especially a woman.

adj.  

  1. Of or relating to a tail or tails: tail feathers.

  2. Situated in the tail, as of an airplane: a tail gunner.

v.   tailed, tail·ing, tails

v.   tr.

  1. To provide with a tail: tail a kite.

  2. To deprive of a tail; dock.

  3. To serve as the tail of: The Santa Claus float tailed the parade.

  4. To connect (often dissimilar or incongruous objects) by or as if by the tail or end: tail two ideas together.

  5. Architecture To set one end of (a beam, board, or brick) into a wall.

  6. Informal To follow and keep under surveillance.

v.   intr.

  1. To become lengthened or spaced when moving in a line: The patrol tailed out in pairs.

  2. Architecture To be inserted at one end into a wall, as a floor timber or beam.

  3. Informal To follow: tailed after the leader.

  4. Nautical

    1. To go aground with the stern foremost.

    2. To lie or swing with the stern in a named direction, as when riding at anchor or on a mooring.

  5. Sports To veer from a straight course in the direction of the dominant hand of the player propelling the ball: a pitch that tails away from the batter.

Phrasal Verb(s):
tail downTo ease a heavy load down a steep slope.
tail off/awayTo diminish gradually; dwindle or subside: The fireworks tailed off into darkness.

[Middle English, from Old English tægel.]
tail'less adj.
tail 2   (tāl)   
n.  Limitation of the inheritance of an estate to a particular party.
adj.   Law
Being in tail: a tail estate.

[Middle English taille, from Old French, division, from taillier, to cut; see tailor.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

tail  (n.1)
"hindmost part of an animal," O.E. tægl, tægel, from P.Gmc. *tagla- (cf. O.H.G. zagal, Ger. Zagel "tail," dialectal Ger. Zagel "penis," O.N. tagl "horse's tail"), from PIE *doklos, from base *dek- "something long and thin" (referring to such things as fringe, lock of hair, horsetail; cf. O.Ir. dual "lock of hair," Skt. dasah "fringe, wick"). The primary sense, at least in Gmc., seems to have been "hairy tail," or just "tuft of hair," but already in O.E. the word was applied to the hairless "tails" of worms, bees, etc. Another O.E. word for "tail" was steort (see stark). Meaning "reverse side of a coin" is from 1684; that of "backside of a person, buttocks" is recorded from 1303; slang sense of "pudenda" is from 1362; that of "woman as sex object" is from 1933, earlier "prostitute" (1846). The tail-race (1776) is the part of a mill race below the wheel. To turn tail "take flight" (c.1586) originally was a term in falconry. The image of the tail wagging the dog is attested from 1907.

tail  (n.2)
"limitation of ownership," a legal term, 1321 in Anglo-Fr.; 1284 in Anglo-L., in most cases an aphetic form of entail.

tail  (v.)
"follow secretly," U.S. colloquial, 1907, is from earlier sense of "follow or drive cattle," from tail (n.1). Tail off "diminish" is attested from 1854.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Financial Dictionary

tail

  1. In a bid for a new security issue, the portion of the bid price that follows the decimal. For example, a bid of $92.125 has a tail of .125.

  2. The difference between the average bid and the lowest bid at an auction for Treasury securities.


Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms by David L. Scott.
Copyright © 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Legal Dictionary

Main Entry: tail
Function: noun
Etymology: Anglo-French, literally, cutting, from Old French, from taillier to cut, prune
1 : the condition of being limited or restricted by entailing tail>
2 : ENTAIL 2

Main Entry: tail
Function: adjective
: limited as to tenure —see also fee tail at FEE 1
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: tail
Pronunciation: 'tA(&)l
Function: noun
often attributive 1 : the rear end or a process or prolongation of the rear end ofthe body of an animal
2 : one end of a molecule regarded as opposite to the head; especially : the end of a lipid molecule that consists of a nonpolar hydrocarbonchain and is opposite to the polar group tail attached to a polar head —R. E. Kirk & D. F. Othmer>
3 : any of various parts of bodily structures that are terminal: as a : the distal tendon of a muscle b : the slender left end of the human pancreas c : the common convoluted tube that forms the lower part of the epididymis
4 : the motile part of a sperm that extends from the middle piece to the end and comprises the flagellum
5 : a thin protein tube which forms part of the coat of some bacteriophages and through which DNA is injected into a cell —tailed /'tA(&)ld/ adjective —tail·less /'tA(&)l-les/ adjective
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

tail (tāl)
n.
The posterior part of an animal, especially when elongated and extending beyond the trunk or main part of the body.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Science Dictionary
tail   (tāl)  Pronunciation Key 

  1. The rear, elongated part of many animals, extending beyond the trunk or main part of the body. Tails are used variously for balance, combat, communication, mating displays, fat storage, propulsion and course correction in water, and course correction in air.

  2. A long, stream of gas or dust forced from the head of a comet when it is close to the Sun. Tails can be up to 150 million km (93 million miles) long, and they always point away from the Sun because of the force of the solar wind. ◇ Plasma tails, or ion tails, appear bluish and straight and narrow, and are formed when solar wind forces ionized gas to stream off the coma. Dust tails are wide and curved, and are formed when solar heat forces trails of dust off the coma; solid particles reflecting the Sun's light create their bright yellow color.


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Idioms & Phrases

tail

In addition to the idioms beginning with tail, also see bright-eyed and bushy-tailed; can't make head or tail of; get off one's tail; heads or tails; in two shakes (of a lamb's tail); on someone's coattails; tiger by the tail; turn tail; work one's fingers to the bone (tail off).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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