tail Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the posterior part of the body of a vertebrate especially when elongated and extending beyond the trunk or main part of the body
  2. noun the time of the last part of something
    fag end; tail end.
    • the fag end of this crisis-ridden century
    • the tail of the storm
  3. noun any projection that resembles the tail of an animal
    tail end.
  4. noun the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
    bum; seat; stern; keister; tail end; prat; bottom; rear end; buns; tush; rump; fanny; ass; behind; tooshie; hind end; posterior; hindquarters; butt; nates; rear; arse; buttocks; backside; derriere; can; fundament.
    • he deserves a good kick in the butt
    • are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?
  5. noun a spy employed to follow someone and report their movements
    shadower; shadow.
  6. noun (usually plural) the reverse side of a coin that does not bear the representation of a person's head
  7. noun the rear part of an aircraft
    tail assembly; empennage.
  8. noun the rear part of a ship
    poop; quarter; after part; stern.
  9. verb go after with the intent to catch
    go after; chase after; track; dog; trail; tag; give chase; chase.
    • The policeman chased the mugger down the alley
    • the dog chased the rabbit
  10. verb remove or shorten the tail of an animal
    dock; bob.
  11. verb remove the stalk of fruits or berries

WordNet

Tail noun
Etymology
F. taille a cutting. See Entail, Tally.
Definitions
  1. (Law) Limitation; abridgment. Burrill.
Tail adjective
Definitions
  1. (Law) Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed; as, estate tail.
Tail noun
Etymology
AS. tægel, tægl; akin to G. zagel, Icel. tagl, Sw. tagel, Goth. tagl hair. *59.
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) The terminal, and usually flexible, posterior appendage of an animal. ✍ The tail of mammals and reptiles contains a series of movable vertebræ, and is covered with flesh and hairs or scales like those of other parts of the body. The tail of existing birds consists of several more or less consolidated vertebræ which supports a fanlike group of quills to which the term tail is more particularly applied. The tail of fishes consists of the tapering hind portion of the body ending in a caudal fin. The term tail is sometimes applied to the entire abdomen of a crustacean or insect, and sometimes to the terminal piece or pygidium alone.
  2. Any long, flexible terminal appendage; whatever resembles, in shape or position, the tail of an animal, as a catkin.
    Doretus writes a great praise of the distilled waters of those tails that hang on willow trees. Harvey.
  3. Hence, the back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything, -- as opposed to the head, or the superior part.
    The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail. Deut. xxviii. 13.
  4. A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
    "Ah," said he, "if you saw but the chief with his tail on." Sir W. Scott.
  5. The side of a coin opposite to that which bears the head, effigy, or date; the reverse; -- rarely used except in the expression "heads or tails," employed when a coin is thrown up for the purpose of deciding some point by its fall.
  6. (Anat.) The distal tendon of a muscle.
  7. (Bot.) A downy or feathery appendage to certain achens. It is formed of the permanent elongated style.
  8. (Surg.) (a) 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. (b) One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
  9. (Naut.) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
  10. (Mus.) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem. Moore (Encyc. of Music).
  11. pl. Same as Tailing, 4.
  12. (Arch.) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part, as a slate or tile.
  13. pl. (Mining) See Tailing, n., 5.
    Would she turn tail to the heron, and fly quite out another way; but all was to return in a higher pitch. Sir P. Sidney.
Tail transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded. Obs.
    Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds, wherewith he was tailed, continued uncanceled, and was called on the next Parliament. Fuller.
  2. To pull or draw by the tail. R. Hudibras.
Tail intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. (Arch.) To hold by the end; -- said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; -- with in or into.
  2. (Naut.) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; -- said of a vessel at anchor; as, this vessel tails down stream.

Webster 1913