[f. TAIL sb.1; in various unconnected senses.]
I. Transitive uses.
1. To furnish with a tail or final appendage.
(In early use only in the pa. pple.: see TAILED ppl. a.1 1.)
1817. Coleridge, Satyrane’s Lett., ii. 211. The cap behind tailed with an enormous quantity of ribbon.
1876. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, 224. A double shackle is fixed, and each side is first ‘tailed,’ that is to say, a wire is passed round the porcelain and bound in the ordinary way, leaving one end projecting to a distance of from eighteen inches to two feet.
1879. Baring-Gould, Germany, I. ii. 46. In England now anyone adopts arms, and tails his name with esquire, whether he have a right or not to these distinctions.
2. To grasp or drag by the tail.
† To stave and tail, to take part in bear-baiting or bull-baiting, by slaving the bear or bull, or tailing the dogs.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. II. 163. Lawyers, lest the Bear Defendant, And Plaintiff Dog should make an end on’t, Do stave and tail with Writs of Error, Reverse of Judgment, and Demurrer. Ibid., III. 134. First Trulla stav’d, and Cerdon tail’d, Until their Mastives loos’d their hold.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 12. Tailing a fish out is more often employed on salmon.
1892. Mrs. J. Gordon, Eunice Anscombe, 177. One … dived forward in a vain attempt to ‘tail’ the otter.
1893. Field, 11 March, 360/2. Grasp it [the fish] above the tail—‘tail it,’ to employ the technical phrase.
3. To dock the tail of (a lamb, etc.); to cut or pull off that which is regarded as the tail, esp. of a plant or fruit. (Cf. TOP v.)
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 61. Hemp … should be well topt, and tailed; that is, both ends cleared by the hatchell.
1824. L. M. Hawkins, Mem., Anecd., etc., II. 52. A gentleman … was topping and tailing gooseberries for wine.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 42. Another worker … tops and tails the turnips.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 88. The number of lambs castrated and tailed.
4. To form the tail or last member of (a procession, etc.); to terminate. (Cf. HEAD v. 10.)
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XI. 465. A male author heads and a male author tails the procession.
1890. Pall Mall G., 9 June, 4/2. The quaint little procession headed … by the officially-robed Lord Chancellor, and tailed by the blue-gowned Common Councilmen.
1894. R. H. Davis, Eng. Cousins, 117. The boat which is to tail the procession.
5. In Australia: To follow, drive, or tend (sheep or cattle).
1844. Port Phillip Patriot, 5 Aug., 3/6. I know many boys from the age of nine to sixteen years tailing cattle.
1852. Mundy, Our Antipodes, I. x. 314. The stockman … considers ‘tailing sheep’ as an employment too tardigrade for a man of action and spirit.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 239. The cattle … being … ‘tailed’ or followed daily as a shepherd does sheep.
6. U. S. local. (See quots.)
1792. Belknap, Hist. New Hampsh., III. 106. In descending a long and steep hill, they have a contrivance to prevent the load from making too rapid a descent. Some of the cattle are placed behind it; a chain … attached to their yokes is brought forward and fastened to the hinder end of the load, and the resistance which is made by these cattle checks the descent. This operation is called tailing.
1851. Harper’s Mag., III. 518. In this manner the load is tailed down steeps where it would be impossible for the tongue-oxen to resist the pressure of the load.
7. To attach to the tail or hind end of something else; to join on behind, annex, subjoin to.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xci. 113. They toke foure Englysshe shyppes … and tayled them to their shyppes.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. xii. (Arb.), 128. Wordes monosillables,… if they be tailed one to another, or th’one to a dissillable or polyssillable.
1633. J. Clarke, 2nd Praxis, 44. Ne is alwayes tayled to the first word of the Interrogation.
1681. Rycaut, trans. Gracian’s Critick, 224. They met great Mules tailed one to the other.
1685. J. Scott, Chr. Life, II. 155. What is this but to tail one folly to another?
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 161/2. Each new row of houses tailed on its drains to those of its neighbours.
8. Building. To insert the tail or end of (a beam, stone, or brick) into a wall, etc.; to let in, dovetail.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 365. Party-walls may also be cut into for the purposes of tailing-in stone steps.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 155. To tail, or dovetail, to let one piece of timber into another.
9. passive. Of a mill-wheel: To be clogged by tail-water (q.v., s.v. TAIL sb.1 14, quot. 1825).
II. Intransitive uses.
10. Of a ship: To run aground stern foremost.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 147. She tailed aground upon a sand bank.
1799. Naval Chron., I. 258. The Formidable … tailed on the … mud.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 117. It is to … preserve the main post, should the ship tail aground.
11. Of water, flame, etc.: To flow or creep back against the current; to run back, recoil.
1799. Trans. Soc. Arts, XVII. 349. Floods are very apt to dam or tail-back, and thereby impede or clog the … wheel.
1883. Gresley, Coal Mining Gloss., s.v., When fire-damp ignites … and the flame … creeps backwards against the current of air … it is said to tail back into the workings.
12. Of a moving body of men or animals: a. To lengthen out into a straggling line, as in hunting, racing, etc.; to drop behind, fall away.
1781. W. Blane, Ess. Hunting (1788), 116. [The hounds] not being of equal speed … will be found to tail, which is an inconveniency.
1862. Whyte-Melville, Ins. Bar, x.
1864. Trevelyan, Compet. Wallah (1866), 134. As down towards Barton Wold we sail, The Cockneys soon began to tail.
1897. Thornton, Remin. Clergyman, i. 2. Then straggling, tailing, as the fox-hunters phrase it, up came the field.
b. To move or proceed in the form of a line or tail; to fall into a line or tail.
1859. Kingsley, Misc. (1860), I. 160. If ten men tail through a gap.
1882. Mozley, Remin., I. xix. 128. The congregation … came down the road in a dense black mass, but obliged to tail a little.
1899. Annie E. Holdsworth, Valley Gr. Shadow, x. The procession was tailing to Bergstein.
13. To take a position in which the tail or rear is directed away from the wind, current, etc.
1849. Dana, Geol., ii. (1850), 115. In more moderate weather the vessel tails out against the wind.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, ii. 29. Sea-weed always ‘tails to’ a steady or a constant wind.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., To tail up or down a stream, when at anchor in a river, is as a ship’s stern swings.
14. Building. Of a beam, stone, or brick: To have its end let into a wall, etc.: cf. 8.
1842–76. Gwilt, Archit. Gloss., s.v., Where the end of a timber lies or tails upon the walls.
1892. Middleton, Rome, I. 62. Blocks of tufa … tailing 3 to 5 inches into the concrete backing.
15. Of a stream: To now or fall into. (Cf. HEAD v. 7.)
1889. Blackw. Mag., April, 456, note. The Dorak canal, which tails into the Jarrahi river.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 10 July, 2/2. All the channels and spills tailed into the Ziraf.
16. Of a fish: To show its tail at the surface.
1892. in Daily News, 21 May, 5/2. The Man sees there is no fly up. The Man sees the fish are tailing.
1908. Edin. Rev., April, 391. When trout are ‘tailing’ they break the surface with their caudal fin as they grub with their noses for water shrimps.
17. Calico-printing. Of a color, etc.: To spread beyond its proper limits in a tail-like blur.
III. With adverbs.
18. Tail away. intr. To fall away in a tail or straggling line; to die away.
1860. Russell, Diary India, II. xix. 369. They were, however, tailing away fast, as we afterwards discovered.
1905. Hichens, Garden Allah, vii. The arid, sunburnt tracts, where its life centred and where it tailed away into suburban edges not unlike the ragged edges of worn garments.
19. Tail off (out). a. trans. To cause to fall away gradually towards the end; to taper off.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 304. They [artificial hillocks] should be well ‘tailed out,’ as the workmen call it,… letting their hard outline imperceptibly disappear, and, as it were, die away in the outline of the adjoining surface.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, v. He … finished it in a gentle murmur—tailed it off very taper, indeed.
b. intr. To fall away in a tail; to diminish and cease; to come gradually to an end; to subside.
1854. Hooker, Himal. Jrnls., I. xvii. 396. It tailed off abruptly at the junction of the rivers.
1862. Lond. Soc., II. 86. Already the weaker horses are weeded out, and the poorer spirited are tailing off.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 977. The dull sound of valvular tension may be heard to precede it [a cardiac bruit], when it ‘tails off’ from the first sound.
1905. F. Young, Sands of Pleasure, I. iv. His voice tailed off into a sigh.
c. intr. To turn tail, take to flight, go or run off; to withdraw. colloq.
1841. F. E. Paget, S. Antholin’s, vii. 146. Mrs. Spatterdash … tailed off at last to a dissenting chapel. Ibid. (1868), Lucretia, 102. He ducked his head; made a slouching bow; tailed off to his pigs.
1877. Kinglake, Crimea, VI. vi. 376. Some … even tailed off.
1885. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s M., xvi. I was tailing out of it as hard as my legs would carry me.
d. trans. To pass and leave behind (other competitors in a race, etc.).
1852. Bateman, Aquatic Notes, 52. They got close to them at Grassy [corner], but were tailed-off in the Long Reach.
1907. Times, 6 June, 4/3. He was … one of the leaders for half a mile, but afterwards he was tailed off.
20. Tail on. a. trans. To add on as an appendage. b. intr. To join on in the rear.
1825. (Jan. 3) Capt. B. Hall, in Lockhart, Scott. Anxious to tail on a branch from Melrose to meet the [projected railway from Berwick to Kelso].
1862. Mayhew, Boyhood Luther, i. (1863), 11. As the long train swept by, the peasants and villagers tailed on to the rest.
1874. Burnie, Mem. Thomas, 451. A superb passenger car which tails on to the trucks.
1880. Clark Russell, Sailor’s Sweetheart, xiv. All hands tailing on, we ran it [a boom] through the bowsprit cap.
