[f. TAIL v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of TAIL v.1, in its various senses.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 267. You must Cement pieces to the ends of your bricks for tailing, or to make them longer.
1781. P. Beckford, Hunting (1802), 70, note. The tailing of them [hounds’ ears] is usually done before they are put out.
1829. Nat. Philos., I. Hydraulics, iii. 26 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.). The tailing of mill-streams only occurs in the winter seasons, or at times when there is a profusion of water.
1840. Hood, Up Rhine, 44. Short as the course was, it led to a great deal of what the turfmen call tailing.
1854. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem., 494. Mercury, holding but a slight portion of any impurity, dissolved, loses its property of cohering into globular drops…, and assumes the … appearance designated by the … term tailing, that is to say each … aggregation is … an irregularly elongated bar or tail.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., iv. 86. They will not set up again in the race,… And the rest of them, what a ‘tailing off!’
1860. Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 327. Moored in 6 fathoms … clear from tailing into shoal water.
2. pl. A name for the inferior qualities, leavings, or residue of any product; foots, bottoms.
a. Grain or flour of inferior quality; tail grain, etc. Mining. The residuum after most of the valuable ore has been extracted, c. A decomposed outcrop of a vein or bed. d. Tanning: see quot. e. General.
a. 1764. Museum Rust., III. xii. 40. I supposed … that they would go to the tailing, or off-fall corn.
1846. Osborne Times, 24 Aug. For a bushel of best wheat they pay 7s., for first tailings they pay 6s. for second tailings 5s. the bushel.
1883. Harper’s Mag., June, 76/2. All that is left—no longer wheat—is divided into ‘middlings’ and ‘tailings.’
b. 1864. Westgarth, Colony Victoria, xi. 222. His people were content with ‘tailings,’ and places abandoned by the colonists.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 20. In the river-beds … are large accumulations of ‘tailings,’ rich in gold, which escaped under the primitive processes of washing formerly in use.
1901. Scotsman, 3 April, 6/7. 1570 tons of tailings produced by cyanide process yielded 138 ozs.
c. 1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Blossom, the oxidized or decomposed outcrop of a vein or coal-bed, more frequently the latter…. Called … tailing.
d. 1835. C. T. Davis, Manuf. Leather, x. (1897), 174. In one of these [methods] the tanning-liquor which has been in use for some time, is made use of under the name of ‘tailings,’ or sour liquor.
e. 1889. Daily News, 28 Feb., 7/2. We fancy that out of the rejected mass of papers there are very few ‘tailings’ worth sifting.
3. The end or latter part: cf. TAIL sb.1 4.
1646. Sir J. Temple, Irish Rebell., II. 53. I shall hope to get the rest of my tailing together, and make such further provision of … materialls as may enable mee to goe through with the same.
1892. Kipling, The Merchantmen, 81.
| But we were heading homeward | |
| With trade to lose or make— | |
| Good Lord, they slipped behind us | |
| In the tailing of our wake! |
† b. spec. = TAIL sb.1 4 g. Obs.
1684. I. Mather, Remark. Provid. (1856), 43. The vessel was driven on the tailings of a ledge of rocks, where the sea broke violently.
c. Arch. See quot.: cf. TAIL sb.1 4 i.
1842. Gwilt, Archit. Gloss., Tailing, the part of a projecting stone or brick inserted in a wall.
1856. S. C. Brees, Gloss. Terms, s.v., The stone steps of a staircase have a tailing of about 9 inches, in order to support them.
d. Surg. = TAIL sb.1 4 j. rare.
1864. in Webster.
4. In calico-printing: A fault of impression, in which the colors are blurred: see TAIL v.1 17.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tailing-assay, -barley, -corn, -heap, -sand, -wheat; tailings-man, -mill; tailing-mob, a herd of cattle regularly tailed or herded; tailing-rope, Naut. = TAIL-ROPE 2 a.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 106. Yielding … a little over $7.15 per ton, exclusive of their *tailing-assay of $3.76 per ton.
1747. Gentl. Mag., 311. The *tailing corn may soon be cleaned.
c. 1830. Glouc. Farm Rep., 29, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. Their food … in winter [is] raw potatoes, with tailing corn, whey, and skimmed milk.
1899. Daily News, 13 Oct., 3/1. The immense *tailing heaps thrown up by the various companies have proved an excellent means of defence, forming earthworks which command the town [Kimberley] from every side.
1885. Mrs. C. Praed, Head Station, 266. The beasts were … made to join what was called the *‘tailing mob,’ or those which had been constantly herded.
1495. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 197. *Taylyng Ropes for the Mayne sayle … vj; Crane lynes for the Mayne Toppe … j.
1890. Goldf. Victoria, 21. Recent assays of the *tailing sand.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 40. The remainder comprising 9 trammers, 6 mill-men, 1 *tailings-man [etc.]. Ibid., 186. The silver or *tailings mill has not undergone any change.
1862. Q. Rev., April, 286. When … the … *tailing-wheat or ‘gristing’ is sound and of good quality.
