English Explanatory Dictionary

tail

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
  2. 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.
  3. The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
  4. The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird.
  5. The tail-end of any object.
  6. The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
  7. The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
  8. The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
  9. The part of a distribution most distant from the mode.
  10. One who surreptitiously follows another.
  11. The lower order of batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers.
  12. The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y.
verb
  1. To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in or into
  2. To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor.
  3. To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
  4. To follow and observe surreptitiously.
  5. To pull or draw by the tail.
adj
  1. Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
noun
  1. Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.
name
  1. A Chinese constellation coinciding with the tail of Scorpius, one of the 28 lunar mansions and the tail of Azure Dragon.

Pronunciation

/ˈteɪ̯l/ [ˈtʰeɪ̯l] en-us-tail.ogg /ˈteːl/ /ˈtæ̝ɪ̯l/ en-au-tail.ogg /ˈtæ̝ɪ̯u/

Word forms

tail tails tailing tailed

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *taglą Proto-West Germanic *tagl Old English tæġl Middle English tayl English tail From Middle English tail, tayl, teil, from Old English tæġl (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic *tagl, from Proto-Germanic *taglą (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *doḱ- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to tear, fray, shred”). Cognate with Scots tail (“tail”), Saterland Frisian Tail (“tail, end”), West Frisian teil (“tail”), Dutch teil (“tail, haulm, blade”), Low German Tagel (“twisted scourge, whip of thongs and ropes; end of a rope”), German Zagel (“tail”), dialectal Danish tavl (“hair of the tail”), Swedish tagel (“hair of the tail, horsehair”), Norwegian tagl (“tail”), Icelandic tagl (“tail, horsetail, ponytail”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌻 (tagl, “hair”). In some senses, apparently by a generalization of the usual opposition between head and tail.

Synonyms

descender aphrodisia carnal knowledge coitus coition commerce commixtion congress conjunction connection consummation conversation copulation coupling intercourse intimacy intimate relations intromission joining lovemaking lustmaking mating mounting pareunia penetration relations sex sexual congress sexual intercourse sexual relation sexual union swiving union the beast with two backs the birds and the bees boom-boom chesterfield rugby horizontal dancing horizontal hula horizontal jogging horizontal mambo horizontal refreshments horizontal slam dance how's your father love Netflix and chill physical love roll in the hay Ugandan affairs Ugandan discussions action ass bang barney-mugging beef injection bonking cuntfuck fucking frig fucky-fucky

Related words

cat-o'-nine-tails chase one's tail have the world by the tail Otter Tail County tail covert tail feather tail fin tail light tail wagging the dog turn tail caudal entail

Derived words

antitail astrotail at the tail bangtail bang tail bang-tail barbtail beaver tail beavertail betail bigtail blue rat's tail bluetail boattail bobtail bonytail box tail bristle-tail bristletail broadtail broken tail broomtail browntail brown-tail moth bucktail burro's tail Cameroon scaly-tail cat-o'-nine-tails catstail cattail cat-tail sedge chase one's own tail chase tail cold tail comet tail cottontail cowtail cross-tail culvertail dead tail de-tail devil's tail dogstail dog's-tail grass dogtail dovetail drabble-tail draggle-tail dragon's tail ducktail emutail e-tail fantail fat-tail fat tail feathertail fee tail filetail firetail fishtail

Translations

Arabic: ذَنَب Dutch: achtervolger Finnish: varjostaja Finnish: varjo Finnish: häntä Japanese: 尾行者 Norwegian Bokmål: forfølger Russian: хвост Swedish: förföljare Telugu: తోక Czech: ocas French: queue German: Schwanz Hungarian: farok Middle English: tayl Spanish: cola Bulgarian: следвам Chinese Mandarin: 尾隨 /尾随 Czech: sledovat Dutch: schaduwen Dutch: beschatten Esperanto: gvatsekvi Finnish: varjostaa German: beschatten Hebrew: זינב Hungarian: követ Italian: pedinare Japanese: 尾行する Macedonian: сле́ди Norwegian: forfølge Norwegian: skygge Portuguese: seguir Slovak: sledovať Vietnamese: theo đuôi
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