tail
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.
Noun 3 meanings
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.
The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird.
Verb 4 meanings
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.
“This vessel tails downstream.”
To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
To follow and observe surreptitiously.
“Tail that car!”
Adjective 1 meaning
Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
Etymology
From Middle English tail, taile, taille, tayil, tayl, tayle, tayll, teil, tæȝel, from Old English tæġel, 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”).
Similar and opposite words
TAIL at a glance
TAIL has 4 letters and scores 4 points in Scrabble (T 1 + A 1 + I 1 + L 1) and 5 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #3,974 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with tail
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