[f. TAIL sb.1 + END sb.]
1. The hindmost or lowest end of anything; that part which is opposite the head: cf. TAIL sb.1 4.
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 277. A tail-end of a rump of beef, weighing 123/4 lb., when boiled gave 13/4 lb. of bone.
1871. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), I. 255. Two or three tail-ends of glaciers dribbled over them [cliffs].
1880. L. Wallace, Ben Hur, IV. vii. A dray with low wheels and broad axle, surmounted by a box open at the tail-end.
attrib. 1904. Westm. Gaz., 11 Jan., 2/1. Fielder bowled very well indeed at the tail-end men of the Victorian eleven.
† b. spec. The backside, rump: = TAIL sb.1 5.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 395. Were I brouȝte abedde, but if my taille-ende it made, Sholde no ryngynge do me ryse, ar I were rype to dyne.
1401. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 50. Quenching of torches in ȝou tayl-ende.
c. fig.; esp. the concluding part of an action, period of time, etc.: cf. TAIL sb.1 4 b.
1845. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), II. 31. I am sorry to say I have not even the tail-end of a fact in English Zoology to communicate.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxii. The tail-end of a shower caught us.
1887. Spectator, 17 Sept., 1240. At the tail-end of the Session.
2. The end or tip of a tail. rare.
3. = TAILING vbl. sb.1 2 a.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, vi. Everybody ’ud be wanting bread made o’ tail-ends.
Hence Tail-ender, one that is at the tail-end.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVI. 31/1. Six teal flew across tho water, and I downed the tailender.
1908. Daily Chron., 8 Jan., 5/7. The Australians … failed because they could not get our tail-enders out.
