tail

Topic: ANIMALS

Language:	Old English
Origin:	tægel

tail
1 noun

tail1 S2 W3 See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages

[countable]

animal

HBAHB the part that sticks out at the back of an animal's body, and that it can move:

Look up a word starting with D or S for samples of headword or sentence pronunciations on the LDOCE CD-ROM

The dog wagged its tail.

white-tailed/long-tailed etc

a white-tailed eagle

aircraft

TTA the back part of an aircraft

shirt

DC the bottom part of your shirt at the back, that you put inside your trousers

back part

[usually singular] the back or last part of something, especially something that is moving away from you:

We saw the tail of the procession disappearing round the corner.

tails

a) [plural]DC a man's jacket which is short at the front and divides into two long pieces at the back, worn to very formal events [= tailcoat]

b) [uncountable]PEC spoken said when you are tossing a coin (=throwing it up in the air to decide which of two things you will do or choose) [≠ heads]

the tail end of something

the last part of an event, situation, or period of time

be on somebody's tail

informal to be following someone closely

follow

informal someone who is employed to watch and follow someone, especially a criminal

put a tail on somebody (=order someone to follow another person)

turn tail

informal to run away because you are too frightened to fight or attack

with your tail between your legs

embarrassed or unhappy because you have failed or been defeated

it's (a case of) the tail wagging the dog

informal used to say that an unimportant thing is wrongly controlling a situation

chase tail

American English informal to try to get a woman to have sex with you

Definition of tail from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English within
the topic ANIMALS