[f. as prec. + TAIL sb.]
1. The tail of a fox, a fox’s brush. Formerly one of the badges of the fool or jester. † Flap with a foxtail: see FLAP sb. 1 b.
1370[?]. Robert Cicyle, in Nugæ Poet. (1844), 57.
| The fole Roberd with hym went, | |
| Clad in a fulle sympulle garment, | |
| With foxe tayles to renne abowte, | |
| Men myght hym knowe in all the rowte. |
1553, 1717. [see FLAP sb. 1 b].
[a. 1605. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, iv. 48.
| Then tak me with the foxis taill a flap, | |
| Since that the Hevins are hinderers of my hap.] |
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, ii. § 2 (R.). Such a one is carried about the Towne with a boord fastned to his necke, all be-hanged with Foxe-tayles.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 24. When they pulled out this stop, suddenly a large fox-tail flew into their faces!
1893. T. B. Foreman, Trip to Spain, 31. Their bells and ornaments of fox-tail.
2. As the name of a plant: a. One of various species of grass with soft brush-like spikes of flowers, esp. Alopecurus pratensis.
1552. Huloet, Foxe taile, herbe, Alopecurus.
1597. Gerard, Herball, I. lviii. § 1. 81. Foxetaile hath many grassie leaues or blades.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 208. The meadow fox-tail (alopecurus pratensis) … most proper for wet seasons.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 359. The foxtail flowers in April, May, and in the beginning of June, and ripens the seed in June or July.
b. A club-moss (Lycopodium clavatum).
[1800. Wordsw., Idle Shepherd-boys.
| Or with that plant, which in our dale | |
| We call Stag-horn or Fox’s Tail.] |
1866. in Treas. Bot.
3. In various technical uses (see quots.).
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 195. They [Pipes] are subject to Fox-Tails, which are the Roots of very small Trees, that get through the Pores of the Earthen Pipe … grow to such Length and Bigness, as to stop up the Pipe entirely [so Fr. queue de reuard (Littré)].
1854. Badham, Halieut., 313, note. Willughby tells us that of salars caught in the Ribble, those of the first year are called smolts; those of the second year, sprods; those of the third, trouts; those of the fourth, fox-tails; those of the fifth, half-fish; and only after that period, salmon.
1873. Weale’s Dict. Terms (ed. 4), Fox-tail in metallurgy, the cinder obtained in the last stage of the charcoal-finery process; it is a cylindrical piece hollow in the centre. [So Fr. renard, quoted by Littré from Buffon.]
4. attrib. and Comb., as foxtail-grass = FOXTAIL 2 a; foxtail-saw, foxtail-wedging (see quots.).
1597. Gerard, Herball, I. vii. § 1. 8. The great *Foxe-taile grasse.
1711. J. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 377. Rough ear’d Fox-tail Grass.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 362. Meadow fox-tail grass.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 912/1. *Fox-tail Saw. A dovetail saw.
1825. Hamilton, Hand-bk. Terms, *Foxtail wedging. In Carpentry, this is done by sticking into the point of a wooden bolt, a thin wedge of hard wood, which, when the bolt reaches the bottom of the hole, splits, expands, and secures it.
1842–76. Gwilt, Archit. Gloss., Fox-tail Wedging, a method of fixing a tenon in a mortise by splitting the end of the tenon and inserting a projecting wedge, then entering the tenon into the mortise and driving it home.
