a.
1. Of horses: Having the tail docked, so that the short stump left sticks up like a cock’s tail.
Common in the case of hunters, stage-coach horses, etc., during the latter part of the 18th c. and first part of the 19th.
1769. Dublin Mercury, 28–31 Oct., 1/3. A pair of beautiful black cock-tailed Geldings.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 290. They got an English cock-tailed nag, and set him to the business.
1811. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., VIII. 379. A cock-tailed horse is a good mark for a dragoon if you can get a side view of him.
2. Having the tail (or hinder part) cocked up.
1798. Frere & Canning, Loves of Triangles, 33, in Anti-Jacobin, No. 23 (1852), 110. Six cock-tailed mice transport her to the ball, And liveried lizards wait upon her call.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Mr. Peters’s Story. He was such a dear little cock-tail’d pup.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., iv. (1871), 25. Like a ‘devil’s coach-horse.’ Note. The cock-tailed beetle has earned this name.
