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1. WordNet® 3.0 (2006)
tail
    n 1: the posterior part of the body of a vertebrate especially
         when elongated and extending beyond the trunk or main part
         of the body
    2: the time of the last part of something; "the fag end of this
       crisis-ridden century"; "the tail of the storm" [syn: fag
       end, tail, tail end]
    3: any projection that resembles the tail of an animal [syn:
       tail, tail end]
    4: the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; "he
       deserves a good kick in the butt"; "are you going to sit on
       your fanny and do nothing?" [syn: buttocks, nates,
       arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can,
       fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister,
       posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, stern,
       seat, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom,
       behind, derriere, fanny, ass]
    5: a spy employed to follow someone and report their movements
       [syn: tail, shadow, shadower]
    6: (usually plural) the reverse side of a coin that does not
       bear the representation of a person's head [ant: head]
    7: the rear part of an aircraft [syn: tail, tail assembly,
       empennage]
    8: the rear part of a ship [syn: stern, after part,
       quarter, poop, tail]
    v 1: go after with the intent to catch; "The policeman chased
         the mugger down the alley"; "the dog chased the rabbit"
         [syn: chase, chase after, trail, tail, tag, give
         chase, dog, go after, track]
    2: remove or shorten the tail of an animal [syn: dock, tail,
       bob]
    3: remove the stalk of fruits or berries

2. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Tail \Tail\, a. (Law)
   Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed; as, estate tail.
   [1913 Webster]

3. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Tail \Tail\, n. [AS. taegel, taegl; akin to G. zagel, Icel.
   tagl, Sw. tagel, Goth. tagl hair. [root]59.]
   1. (Zool.) The terminal, and usually flexible, posterior
      appendage of an animal.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: The tail of mammals and reptiles contains a series of
         movable vertebrae, 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 vertebrae 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.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. Any long, flexible terminal appendage; whatever resembles,
      in shape or position, the tail of an animal, as a catkin.
      [1913 Webster]

            Doretus writes a great praise of the distilled
            waters of those tails that hang on willow trees.
                                                  --Harvey.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Hence, the back, last, lower, or inferior part of
      anything, -- as opposed to the head, or the superior
      part.
      [1913 Webster]

            The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail.
                                                  --Deut.
                                                  xxviii. 13.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
      [1913 Webster]

            "Ah," said he, "if you saw but the chief with his
            tail on."                             --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. (Anat.) The distal tendon of a muscle.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. (Bot.) A downy or feathery appendage to certain achenes.
      It is formed of the permanent elongated style.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
          [1913 Webster]

   9. (Naut.) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which
      it may be lashed to anything.
      [1913 Webster]

   10. (Mus.) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly
       upward or downward from the head; the stem. --Moore
       (Encyc. of Music).
       [1913 Webster]

   11. pl. Same as Tailing, 4.
       [1913 Webster]

   12. (Arch.) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part,
       as a slate or tile.
       [1913 Webster]

   13. pl. (Mining) See Tailing, n., 5.
       [1913 Webster]

   14. (Astronomy) the long visible stream of gases, ions, or
       dust particles extending from the head of a comet in the
       direction opposite to the sun.
       [PJC]

   15. pl. (Rope Making) In some forms of rope-laying machine,
       pieces of rope attached to the iron bar passing through
       the grooven wooden top containing the strands, for
       wrapping around the rope to be laid.
       [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   16. pl. A tailed coat; a tail coat. [Colloq. or Dial.]
       [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   17. (Aeronautics) In airplanes, an airfoil or group of
       airfoils used at the rear to confer stability.
       [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   18. the buttocks. [slang or vulgar]
       [PJC]

   19. sexual intercourse, or a woman used for sexual
       intercourse; as, to get some tail; to find a piece of
       tail. See also tailing[3]. [slang and vulgar]
       [PJC]

   Tail beam. (Arch.) Same as Tailpiece.

   Tail coverts (Zool.), the feathers which cover the bases of
      the tail quills. They are sometimes much longer than the
      quills, and form elegant plumes. Those above the quills
      are called the upper tail coverts, and those below, the
      under tail coverts.

   Tail end, the latter end; the termination; as, the tail end
      of a contest. [Colloq.]

   Tail joist. (Arch.) Same as Tailpiece.

   Tail of a comet (Astron.), a luminous train extending from
      the nucleus or body, often to a great distance, and
      usually in a direction opposite to the sun.

   Tail of a gale (Naut.), the latter part of it, when the
      wind has greatly abated. --Totten.

   Tail of a lock (on a canal), the lower end, or entrance
      into the lower pond.

   Tail of the trenches (Fort.), the post where the besiegers
      begin to break ground, and cover themselves from the fire
      of the place, in advancing the lines of approach.

   Tail spindle, the spindle of the tailstock of a turning
      lathe; -- called also dead spindle.

   To turn tail, to run away; to flee.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

4. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Tail \Tail\, n. [F. taille a cutting. See Entail, Tally.]
   (Law)
   Limitation; abridgment. --Burrill.
   [1913 Webster]

   Estate in tail, a limited, abridged, or reduced fee; an
      estate limited to certain heirs, and from which the other
      heirs are precluded; -- called also estate tail.
      --Blackstone.
      [1913 Webster]

5. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Tail \Tail\, v. i.
   1. (Arch.) To hold by the end; -- said of a timber when it
      rests upon a wall or other support; -- with in or into.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Naut.) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; --
      said of a vessel at anchor; as, this vessel tails down
      stream.
      [1913 Webster]

   Tail on. (Naut.) See Tally on, under Tally.
      [1913 Webster]

6. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Tail \Tail\, v. t.
   1. To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely
      to, as that which can not be evaded. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds,
            wherewith he was tailed, continued uncanceled, and
            was called on the next Parliament.    --Fuller.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To pull or draw by the tail. [R.] --Hudibras.
      [1913 Webster]

   To tail in or To tail on (Arch.), to fasten by one of the
      ends into a wall or some other support; as, to tail in a
      timber.
      [1913 Webster]

7. Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
TAIL. An estate tail is an estate of inheritance, to a man or a woman and 
his or her heirs of his or her body, or heirs of his body of a particular 
description, or to several persons and the heirs of their bodies, or the 
heirs generally or specially of the body or bodies of one person, or several 
bodies. Prest. on Estates, 355; Cruise, tit. 2, c. 1, s. 12. 
     2. Estates tail, as qualified "in their limitation and extent, are of 
several sorts. They have different denominations, according to the 
circumstances under which, or the persons to whom they are limited. They are 
usually divided into estates tail general or special. 
     3. But they may be more advantageously arranged under the following 
classes. 
     4.-1. As to the extent of the degree to which the estates may descend, 
they are, 1st, general; 2d, qualified. 
     5.-2. As to the sex of the person who may succeed, they are, 1st. 
General, as extending to males or females of the body, without exception. 
2d. Special, as admitting only one sex to the succession, and excluding the 
other sex. 
     6.-3. As to the person by whom or by whose body those heirs are to be 
begotten, they are either, 1st. General, as to all the heirs of the body of 
a man or woman. 2d. Special, as to the heirs of the body of a man or woman 
begotten by a particular person, or to the heirs of the two bodies of a man 
and woman. On the several species of estates tail noticed under this 
division, it may be observed, that the same estate may at the same time, be 
general in one respect; as, for example, to all the heirs of the body in 
whatever degree they are related; and may be, special in another respect, as 
that these heirs shall be males, &c. Prest. on Estates, 383, 4. 
     7. The law relating to entails is diversified in the several states. In 
Indiana and Louisiana they never existed they are unknown in Illinois and 
Vermont. In Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and New York, estates tail 
are converted into estates in fee simple by statute; and they may be barred 
by a simple conveyance in Pennsylvania. In Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, 
New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina, they have been modified, and in 
Georgia, they have been abolished without reservation. Griff. Reg. h.t. 
Vide, generally, 8 Vin. Ab. 227 to 272; 10 Id. 257 to 269; 20 Id. 163; Bac. 
Ab. Estate in tail; 4 Com. Dig. 17; 4 Kent, Com. 12; Bouv. Inst. Index, 
h.t.; and. 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 188, where an attempt is made to prove that an 
estate resembling an estate tail was not unknown to the Romans. 



8. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906)
TAIL, n.  The part of an animal's spine that has transcended its
natural limitations to set up an independent existence in a world of
its own.  Excepting in its foetal state, Man is without a tail, a
privation of which he attests an hereditary and uneasy consciousness
by the coat-skirt of the male and the train of the female, and by a
marked tendency to ornament that part of his attire where the tail
should be, and indubitably once was.  This tendency is most observable
in the female of the species, in whom the ancestral sense is strong
and persistent.  The tailed men described by Lord Monboddo are now
generally regarded as a product of an imagination unusually
susceptible to influences generated in the golden age of our pithecan
past.


Thesaurus Results for tail:

1. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
Thule, Ultima Thule, acknowledgments, adherent, affix, aft, after, aftermost, afterpart, afterpiece, allonge, appendage, appendix, arm, arse, ass, attendant, back, back door, back matter, back seat, back side, backside, backward, bastard title, bedog, behind, bibliography, bitter end, bottom, bottom dollar, bough, boundary, braid, branch, breech, brush, buff, bum, bun, butt, butt end, buttocks, can, catch line, catchword, cauda, caudal, caudal appendage, caudate, caudated, caudation, caudiform, cavaliere servente, chase, cheeks, chignon, coda, codicil, coil, colophon, come after, come behind, commentary, conclusive, contents, contents page, copyright page, courtier, croup, cue, dangler, dedication, definitive, dependent, determinative, disciple, dock, dog, enclitic, endleaf, endmost, endpaper, endsheet, envoi, epilogue, errata, eventual, extreme, extremity, eye, fag end, fan, fanny, fantail, farthest, farthest bound, final, flag, flunky, flyleaf, folio, follow, follow a clue, follow up, follower, following, fore edge, foreword, front matter, go after, go behind, half-title page, hand, hanger-on, head, heel, henchman, hind, hind end, hind part, hinder, hindermost, hindhand, hindhead, hindmost, homme de cour, hound, hunt down, imp, imprint, index, infix, inscription, interlineation, interpolation, introduction, joint, jumping-off place, keister, knot, last, leaf, leg, limb, limit, limiting, link, lobe, lobule, makeup, marginalia, member, move behind, nib, nose, nose out, note, occiput, offshoot, organ, page, parasite, partisan, pigtail, pinion, plait, point, polar, pole, posterior, postern, postscript, prat, preface, prefix, preliminaries, proclitic, public, pursue, pursuer, pursuivant, queue, rabbit, ramification, rattail, rear, rear end, rearmost, rearward, recto, retrograde, reverse, reverso, rider, rump, run down, run to earth, runner, running title, rusty-dusty, satellite, scholia, scion, sectary, shadow, signature, smell out, sniff out, spray, sprig, spur, stalk, stern, stooge, string along, stub, stump, subtitle, successor, suffix, supporter, switch, tab, table of contents, tag, tag after, tag along, tag end, tagtail, tail end, tailed, tailgate, taillike, tailpiece, tendril, terminal, terminating, terminative, text, tip, title, title page, topknot, trace, trace down, track, track down, trail, trail after, trailer, train, trainbearer, tread close upon, trim size, tuchis, tush, tushy, twig, twist, type page, ultimate, verso, votary, wake, ward heeler, wing
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