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Tail end   /teɪl ɛnd/   Listen
noun
Tail  n.  
1.
(Zool.) The terminal, and usually flexible, posterior appendage of an animal. 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.
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."
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."
4.
A train or company of attendants; a retinue. ""Ah," said he, "if you saw but the chief with his tail on.""
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 achenes. 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.
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.
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.
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.
16.
pl. A tailed coat; a tail coat. (Colloq. or Dial.)
17.
(Aeronautics) In airplanes, an airfoil or group of airfoils used at the rear to confer stability.
18.
The buttocks. (slang or vulgar)
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)
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.
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. "Would she turn tail to the heron, and fly quite out another way; but all was to return in a higher pitch."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Tail end" Quotes from Famous Books



... invites were placed according to their rank and position: all the gros bonnets were in their right places, you may be quite sure. I was such a little bonnet among all those great people that I was practically nowhere, and at the tail end of everything except the members of the Household and the ladyless gentlemen, who, ...
— In the Courts of Memory 1858-1875. • L. de Hegermann-Lindencrone
... stained-glass windows, which look well. The colours are rich, and the designs artistic. Two of them, we believe, were fixed in memory of the late Mrs. Winlaw. The vestry stands on one side of the chancel, and in the doorway of it there is a red curtain, intended to keep out the tail end of whirlwinds and draughts in general. When we looked into this vestry, the idea flashed upon us that its occupant must be a specially studious and virtuous gentleman, for upon the mantelpiece there were 14 large Bibles, surmounted by three ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus
... kind of fish the Indians live on during the winter," Tommy explained as he scraped the scales from his prize. "Only," he continued, "the Indians don't clean them at all. They simply make a hole in the tail end of each fish and string them up like beads on sticks which ...
— Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds • Archibald Lee Fletcher
... and do the same with the other side. You will now find you can remove the bone whole from the fish, detaching, as you do so, any flesh still retaining the bone. Then you have two halves of the fish, and you have four quarters of solid fish. To remove the skin, take the tail end firmly between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, hold the skin side downward on the board, and with your knife make an incision across the flesh, then, keeping the skin firmly between your thumb and finger, push the knife between it and the flesh, slightly humoring it to prevent ...
— Choice Cookery • Catherine Owen
... but who are now at hand with claims, real or imaginary, on your purse. Inasmuch as you have a deadly fear of being remembered afterward in this hotel as a piker, you continue to dip down and to fork over, and so by the time you reach the tail end of the procession your ten per cent has grown to twelve or fifteen ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb
... over the tail end and balanced our way up the long narrow block, like walking a tight rope, to the turret, where we descended through a hole like the opening into a gas main into a small round compartment about six feet in diameter exactly in the midship section, which was the largest compartment in ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot
... lantern, which showed the rolling wreaths of the mist, just reached the water, and in the reflection he saw two greenish points. After long looking, he made out that these were the eyes of a crocodile, whose body was half in and half out of the water, the tail end of him being anchored on the little island. At eleven o'clock he roused Compton ...
— In Search of the Okapi - A Story of Adventure in Central Africa • Ernest Glanville
... who understood perfectly, "a've dune a' thae years withoot a break, an' a'm laith (unwilling) tae be takin' holidays at the tail end. ...
— Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren


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