Pronunciations (5)
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/ˈteɪ̯l/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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[ˈtʰeɪ̯l]
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈteːl/
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/ˈtæ̝ɪ̯l/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
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/ˈtæ̝ɪ̯u/
Noun
The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
- Examples
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Most primates have a tail and fangs.
An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails; a strand of material hanging from something.
- Examples
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Duretus writes a great praise of the Distill'd waters of those tails that hang on Willow Trees.
Using a thin tapestry needle, weave the warp tails back into the fabric in a warpwise direction and trim off the excess.
The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird.
The tail-end of any object.
- Examples
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And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the taile, […]
More examples (1)
It was soon over, and the unmoved magistrate calmly ordained that Deborah Williams, Elizabeth and Faith Wilson, should be tied to a cart's tail, and thus led through the principal streets of the town, receiving during their progress twenty lashes each, well laid on, upon the naked back.
The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
The part of a distribution most distant from the mode.
- Examples
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long tail
One who surreptitiously follows another.
The lower order of batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers.
The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y.
- Synonyms
The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse.
Usage- in-plural
All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on.
- Examples
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A sequence (a#95;n) is said to be frequently 0 if every tail of the sequence contains 0.
The buttocks or backside.
Usage- US usage
- Colloquial
- Examples
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By Goddis sydes, syns I her thyder broughte, / She hath gote me more money with her tayle / Than hath some shyppe that into Bordews sayle.
More examples (1)
They were wont to wipe their tailes [translating cul] (this vaine superstition of words must be left unto women) with a sponge, and that's the reason why Spongia in Latine is counted an obscene word[…].
The penis of a person or animal.
Usage- Slang
Sexual intercourse.
Usage- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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I'm gonna get me some tail tonight.
More examples (1)
“Innarested in a little tail t’night?” “Me?” I said. Which was a very dumb answer, but it’s quite embarrassing when somebody comes right up and asks you a question like that.
On the bosom of young Abigail Was written the price of her tail And on her behind For the use of the blind Was the same information in Braille
The stern; the back of the kayak.
A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
- Examples
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Ah! if you Saxon Duinhé-wassal (English gentleman) saw but the chief with his tail on. […] that is, with all his usual followers
The distal tendon of a muscle.
A filamentous projection on the tornal section of each hind wing of certain butterflies.
A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style.
A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing.
One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
A tailing.
The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile.
A tailcoat.
Usage- Colloquial
- Dated
Synonym of pigtail (“a short length of twisted electrical wire”).
The final fraction of a distillation run, typically containing impurities and fusel oils.
- Synonyms
Verb
To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in or into
To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor.
- Examples
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This vessel tails downstream.
To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
- Examples
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Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds, wherewith he was tailed, continued uncancelled.
To follow and observe surreptitiously.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Tail that car!
To pull or draw by the tail.
- Examples
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The conqu'ring foe they soon afailid, First Trulla stav'd, and Cerdon tail'd
Adjective
Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
- Examples
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estate tail
Noun
Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.
- Related words
- Examples
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tail male
in tail
Noun
the posterior part of the body of a vertebrate especially when elongated and extending beyond the trunk or main part of the body
the time of the last part of something
- Examples
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the fag end of this crisis-ridden century
the tail of the storm
any projection that resembles the tail of an animal
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he deserves a good kick in the butt
are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?
a spy employed to follow someone and report their movements
(usually plural) the reverse side of a coin that does not bear the representation of a person's head
- Antonyms
the rear part of an aircraft
- Synonyms
the rear part of a ship
- Synonyms
Verb
go after with the intent to catch
- Examples
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The policeman chased the mugger down the alley
the fox chased the rabbit
remove or shorten the tail of an animal
- Broader terms
remove the stalk of fruits or berries