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tail
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
tail
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a dog wags its tail (=moves its tail from side to side to show pleasure)
▪ The dog stood up and wagged his tail.
rats' tails
shirt tail
tail light
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
bushy
▪ No sign of squirrels at ground level, not a print, not a glimpse of a bushy tail.
▪ It had a bushy red tail, which, oddly, Felicia had seen the night before.
▪ All of them give you fair warning of their character by deliberately making themselves conspicuous and waving their bushy tails.
▪ They're rodents - like rats, only with bushy tails.
forked
▪ Larger and rather more uniformly dark than Little Swift, and with a markedly narrower white rump and distinctly forked tail.
▪ Beside him stood a devil in red tights with horns and a forked tail.
▪ Complete white collar, paler rump and less forked tail are best distinctions from winter Whiskered Tern.
▪ In these superb light conditions its deeply forked tail glowed a rich chestnut.
▪ The only large predator of the region with a deeply forked tail, except for the Black Kite.
▪ He is growing horns and a forked tail here!
▪ Narrow, scythe-like wings, short usually forked tail adapted to very fast flight.
▪ Males are slimmer than females, with a more deeply forked tail fin.
long
▪ Heavy head, long tail, rectangular wings.
▪ They grow long tails as material streams away from their rocky cores driven by solar radiation.
▪ It looks like a slightly small-sized cross between a bee and a wasp, but with a longer drooping tail.
▪ A magpie overhead, its long tail black and belly white.
▪ It was a female, explained Bryan, and only the male proudly carries the two extra long black tail feathers.
▪ Males evolved long tails to charm females.
▪ Experiments have shown that female long-tailed widow birds prefer males with the longest tails.
▪ Does it have a long tail?
short
▪ Smaller and less variable than Desert Lark, from which readily distinguished by dark bar at tip of shorter tail.
▪ All had their manes shorn short but their tails were long, though well groomed.
▪ In fact no other sandgrouse with any black on belly at all has a short tail.
▪ The front wings were less exaggerated, the rear overhang shorter and the tail a little taller.
▪ Juvenile has no crest and shorter tail.
▪ More often seen perched or flying low than soaring, when wings are held slightly crooked and rather short tail is noticeable.
■ NOUN
end
▪ I tie my next colour on to the tail end of the first yarn and pull it straight through.
▪ But this is the tail end of a really big set of stories about royal marriages.
▪ It was the tail end of the season and there was no time for a full-scale tour.
▪ To get him to face forward, I turned him by pushing at his tail end.
▪ Chapter 5 Saturday morning dawned late for me, and I just caught the tail end of Sport on Four.
▪ I did catch the tail end of them in my youth.
▪ It had been a bumpy ride, through the tail end of a thunderstorm.
▪ At the tail end of the nineteenth century, the Viennese politician Karl Lueger founded his power base on an anti-semitic platform.
feather
▪ From a dry stone wall inland, redstarts darted, like orange flames, tail feathers fanned and quivering.
▪ They also made fans of the tail feathers of the scissor-tail flycatcher, which they wore at the shoulder like epaulets.
▪ A barn owl's body feathers are mostly for warmth, while the wing and tail feathers are used for flight.
▪ Then you start fanning your tail feathers and puffing your neck in and out.
▪ Male has white tips to outer tail feathers and three white spots on outer wing quills.
▪ Emperor penguin chicks have a grayish down coat with dark wing and tail feathers, but this odd bird is all white.
▪ The rest of the tail feathers are more manoeuvrable.
fin
▪ He uses his enlarged tail fin to regularly splash them with water, until they hatch about two days later.
▪ Luxurystarved veterans tapped wartime savings to buy record numbers of wraparound windshields and tail fins.
▪ It has no tail fin like those of other fish, merely a fleshy stump.
▪ Picture a shallow pool with a glassy surface, and in the pool picture minnows fluttering their tail fins but otherwise stationary.
▪ Males are slimmer than females, with a more deeply forked tail fin.
▪ It is a conveyance of dreams: chrome, tail fins, pale blue bodywork.
pony
▪ A small beard grew around the mouth and a pony tail weaved down his back.
▪ An older man is walking a girl with a pony tail through a pattern that forms a large triangle.
▪ On others in close-up, her long pony tail swinging, laughing and shouting, eyes dark and glittering.
▪ Butler &038; Wilson earrings, £42 Right: Pull hair into a loose pony tail and secure with a covered elastic band.
▪ Twist pony tail round and make a gap in the middle of the hair above band.
▪ This younger woman was very attractive with a dark complexion and thick black hair tied in a pony tail.
▪ Her shiny, dark hair was done up in a pony tail with a big red bow.
▪ Her hair was scraped back in a pony tail, her face was smeared with mud.
rotor
▪ We have already seen that the weathercock effect due to forward flight makes the tail rotor too effective.
▪ He had Reacher and the gunner lean out to watch the very delicate tail rotor.
▪ This is inserted between the receiver and the tail rotor servo.
▪ Hovering at the front of the clearing, the tail rotor was only a few feet from the rear.
▪ Fig. 5.10 Lateral trim offset due to tail rotor.
▪ My tail rotor spun just a few feet from the ground.
▪ You should see the tail rotor slow right down or even stop.
▪ I was nervous about hitting the tail rotor on the rough ground.
section
▪ The tail section housed emergency rations and first aid kit.
▪ Above: Tim Benson's Swallow Tail has extra leading edges for the tail section.
▪ The bridge is a simple, chromed, face-mounted affair, with the strings located through the turned-up tail section.
shirt
▪ His shirt tails would come askew, his sleeves ride up.
▪ I stuffed my shirt tail back into my trousers and tried to straighten my tie.
▪ But a long shirt tail flopped down around his thighs.
■ VERB
turn
▪ She wanted to turn tail and run, but she couldn't have stood herself if she appeared such a coward.
▪ He caught sight of a few others, but they turned tail and vanished when they saw him through the mist.
▪ If one animal suddenly turns tail, it is liable to be attacked and might get injured.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sting in the tail
▪ An omelette of rumour, speculation and downright lies, with many a sting in the tail.
▪ And there was a sting in the tail, he warned finally.
▪ But there's a sting in the tail.
▪ My stories from Lesbos seemed to carry a sting in the tail for both cultures.
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
▪ Christie was there, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at 6:30 a.m.
can't make head or/nor tail of sth
hot on sb's trail/tail
▪ But they were hot on the trail of a loathsome whine as the party in another mess pined for better days.
▪ Lieutenant Ward Bond was at the wheel of the police convertible hot on his tail.
▪ Once again Biddy / Beth flees, but both the Toddler and McGarr are hot on her trail.
in rats' tails
like a dog with two tails
nose to tail
▪ A golden yellow line replaces that of the Redline Rasbora, and follows an almost identical path from nose to tail.
▪ He led his female into a cave where they spawned nose to tail in typical mouthbrooder fashion.
▪ However, when they move around they can form a procession, following each other nose to tail like a miniature train.
▪ She says it's less noise, and traffic which used to be nose to tail now flows freely.
▪ The basic leopard is spotted almost from nose to tail.
top and tail
▪ Lengthier ones such as those in support of specific discovery are not suited and the standard part becomes little more than the top and tail.
▪ Peel off the tough outer skin of the silk squash, or top and tail the courgettes.
▪ There is no need to top and tail them.
▪ There will be four engines in operation with two trains to push, pull, top and tail, and double-head.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Taffy always wags her tail when I come home.
▪ the tail of a comet
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Andersson tackled the question directly by experimentally altering the tail lengths of the males.
▪ Can you think of a sympathetic animal with a hairless tail?
▪ It is a conveyance of dreams: chrome, tail fins, pale blue bodywork.
▪ Luxurystarved veterans tapped wartime savings to buy record numbers of wraparound windshields and tail fins.
▪ Miller noticed that, among the swallows he studied, the longest tails of the males were also the most symmetrical.
▪ The crews work their tail off and then only get six hours of rest a day.
▪ When I pedal-turned the tail away from the flames, my door flew open.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
away
▪ Since then it's tailed away.
off
▪ Use of mundic tailed off in the Fifties.
▪ When I tailed off he sat nodding, like a doctor considering a diagnosis.
▪ He said it would also be operated with shorter trains, reflecting a tailing off in the capital's explosive population growth.
▪ During the low-water flows, trout fishing was exceptional and has been since, although it has tailed off somewhat.
▪ For example writers usually form the beginnings of words reasonably well, but often this tails off towards the ends of words.
▪ Over the last week, Hasbro shares ran up as high as 46 3 / 4 before tailing off.
▪ Beyond a certain point however, the amount of improvement tailed off with increase in context.
▪ Eventually, our contact tailed off, and I thought no more about her until her name recently surfaced on front pages.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sting in the tail
▪ An omelette of rumour, speculation and downright lies, with many a sting in the tail.
▪ And there was a sting in the tail, he warned finally.
▪ But there's a sting in the tail.
▪ My stories from Lesbos seemed to carry a sting in the tail for both cultures.
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
▪ Christie was there, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at 6:30 a.m.
can't make head or/nor tail of sth
hot on sb's trail/tail
▪ But they were hot on the trail of a loathsome whine as the party in another mess pined for better days.
▪ Lieutenant Ward Bond was at the wheel of the police convertible hot on his tail.
▪ Once again Biddy / Beth flees, but both the Toddler and McGarr are hot on her trail.
in rats' tails
like a dog with two tails
nose to tail
▪ A golden yellow line replaces that of the Redline Rasbora, and follows an almost identical path from nose to tail.
▪ He led his female into a cave where they spawned nose to tail in typical mouthbrooder fashion.
▪ However, when they move around they can form a procession, following each other nose to tail like a miniature train.
▪ She says it's less noise, and traffic which used to be nose to tail now flows freely.
▪ The basic leopard is spotted almost from nose to tail.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A group of photographers tailed the couple all over London.
▪ He claims police have been tailing him for several months.
▪ That police car has been tailing us for the last 5 miles.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Cars and small vans, with only disrepair in common, were head to tail, headlights burning, a few yards away.
▪ During the low-water flows, trout fishing was exceptional and has been since, although it has tailed off somewhat.
▪ He said it would also be operated with shorter trains, reflecting a tailing off in the capital's explosive population growth.
▪ Over the last week, Hasbro shares ran up as high as 46 3 / 4 before tailing off.
▪ The emissary of the Barbeques had tailed Mitchell as far as the top of the beach and hesitated to come closer.
▪ When I tailed off he sat nodding, like a doctor considering a diagnosis.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tail

Tail \Tail\, a. (Law) Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed; as, estate tail.

Tail

Tail \Tail\, n. [AS. t[ae]gel, t[ae]gl; akin to G. zagel, Icel. tagl, Sw. tagel, Goth. tagl hair. [root]59.]

  1. (Zo["o]l.) The terminal, and usually flexible, posterior appendage of an animal.

    Note: The tail of mammals and reptiles contains a series of movable vertebr[ae], and is covered with flesh and hairs or scales like those of other parts of the body. The tail of existing birds consists of several more or less consolidated vertebr[ae] which supports a fanlike group of quills to which the term tail is more particularly applied. The tail of fishes consists of the tapering hind portion of the body ending in a caudal fin. The term tail is sometimes applied to the entire abdomen of a crustacean or insect, and sometimes to the terminal piece or pygidium alone.

  2. Any long, flexible terminal appendage; whatever resembles, in shape or position, the tail of an animal, as a catkin.

    Doretus writes a great praise of the distilled waters of those tails that hang on willow trees.
    --Harvey.

  3. Hence, the back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything, -- as opposed to the head, or the superior part.

    The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail.
    --Deut. xxviii. 13.

  4. A train or company of attendants; a retinue.

    ``Ah,'' said he, ``if you saw but the chief with his tail on.''
    --Sir W. Scott.

  5. The side of a coin opposite to that which bears the head, effigy, or date; the reverse; -- rarely used except in the expression ``heads or tails,'' employed when a coin is thrown up for the purpose of deciding some point by its fall.

  6. (Anat.) The distal tendon of a muscle.

  7. (Bot.) A downy or feathery appendage to certain achenes. It is formed of the permanent elongated style.

  8. (Surg.)

    1. A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; -- called also tailing.

    2. One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.

  9. (Naut.) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.

  10. (Mus.) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
    --Moore (Encyc. of Music).

  11. pl. Same as Tailing, 4.

  12. (Arch.) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part, as a slate or tile.

  13. pl. (Mining) See Tailing, n., 5.

  14. (Astronomy) the long visible stream of gases, ions, or dust particles extending from the head of a comet in the direction opposite to the sun.

  15. pl. (Rope Making) In some forms of rope-laying machine, pieces of rope attached to the iron bar passing through the grooven wooden top containing the strands, for wrapping around the rope to be laid.

  16. pl. A tailed coat; a tail coat. [Colloq. or Dial.]

  17. (A["e]ronautics) In airplanes, an airfoil or group of airfoils used at the rear to confer stability.

  18. the buttocks. [slang or vulgar]

  19. sexual intercourse, or a woman used for sexual intercourse; as, to get some tail; to find a piece of tail. See also tailing[3]. [slang and vulgar]

    Tail beam. (Arch.) Same as Tailpiece.

    Tail coverts (Zo["o]l.), the feathers which cover the bases of the tail quills. They are sometimes much longer than the quills, and form elegant plumes. Those above the quills are called the upper tail coverts, and those below, the under tail coverts.

    Tail end, the latter end; the termination; as, the tail end of a contest. [Colloq.]

    Tail joist. (Arch.) Same as Tailpiece.

    Tail of a comet (Astron.), a luminous train extending from the nucleus or body, often to a great distance, and usually in a direction opposite to the sun.

    Tail of a gale (Naut.), the latter part of it, when the wind has greatly abated.
    --Totten.

    Tail of a lock (on a canal), the lower end, or entrance into the lower pond.

    Tail of the trenches (Fort.), the post where the besiegers begin to break ground, and cover themselves from the fire of the place, in advancing the lines of approach.

    Tail spindle, the spindle of the tailstock of a turning lathe; -- called also dead spindle.

    To turn tail, to run away; to flee.

    Would she turn tail to the heron, and fly quite out another way; but all was to return in a higher pitch.
    --Sir P. Sidney.

Tail

Tail \Tail\, n. [F. taille a cutting. See Entail, Tally.] (Law) Limitation; abridgment.
--Burrill.

Estate in tail, a limited, abridged, or reduced fee; an estate limited to certain heirs, and from which the other heirs are precluded; -- called also estate tail.
--Blackstone.

Tail

Tail \Tail\, v. t.

  1. To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded. [Obs.]

    Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds, wherewith he was tailed, continued uncanceled, and was called on the next Parliament.
    --Fuller.

  2. To pull or draw by the tail. [R.]
    --Hudibras.

    To tail in or To tail on (Arch.), to fasten by one of the ends into a wall or some other support; as, to tail in a timber.

Tail

Tail \Tail\, v. i.

  1. (Arch.) To hold by the end; -- said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; -- with in or into.

  2. (Naut.) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; -- said of a vessel at anchor; as, this vessel tails down stream.

    Tail on. (Naut.) See Tally on, under Tally.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
tail

"limitation of ownership," a legal term, early 14c. in Anglo-French; late 13c. in Anglo-Latin, in most cases a shortened form of entail.

tail

"hindmost part of an animal," Old English tægl, tægel "a tail," from Proto-Germanic *tagla- (cognates: Old High German zagal, German Zagel "tail," dialectal German Zagel "penis," Old Norse tagl "horse's tail," Gothic tagl "hair"), from PIE *doklos, from suffixed form of root *dek- (2) "something long and thin" (referring to such things as fringe, lock of hair, horsetail; cognates: Old Irish dual "lock of hair," Sanskrit dasah "fringe, wick"). According to OED, the primary sense, at least in Germanic, seems to have been "hairy tail," or just "tuft of hair," but already in Old English the word was applied to the hairless "tails" of worms, bees, etc. But Buck writes that the common notion is of "long, slender shape." As an adjective from 1670s.\n

\nMeaning "reverse side of a coin" (opposite the side with the head) is from 1680s; that of "backside of a person, buttocks" is recorded from c.1300; slang sense of "pudenda" is from mid-14c.; that of "woman as sex object" is from 1933, earlier "act of copulation" with a prostitute (1846). Of descending strokes of letters, from 1590s.\n

\nTails "coat with tails" is from 1857. The tail-race (1776) is the part of a mill race below the wheel. To turn tail "take flight" (1580s) originally was a term in falconry. The image of the tail wagging the dog is attested from 1907. Another Old English word for "tail" was steort (see stark).

tail

1520s, "attach to the tail," from tail (n.1). Meaning "move or extend in a way suggestive of a tail" is from 1781. Meaning "follow secretly" is U.S. colloquial, 1907, from earlier sense of "follow or drive cattle." Related: Tailed; tailing. Tail off "diminish" is attested from 1854.

Wiktionary
tail

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context anatomy English) The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus. 2 The tail-end of an object, e.g. the rear of an aircraft's fuselage, containing the tailfin. 3 An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails. 4 The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage. 5 ''Specifically,'' the visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind. 6 The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part. 7 (context statistics English) The part of a distribution most distant from the mode; ''as'', a long tail. 8 One who surreptitiously follows another. 9 (context cricket English) The last four or five batsman in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers. 10 (context typography English) The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in ''g'', ''q'' or ''y''. 11 (context chiefly in the plural English) The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse. 12 (context mathematics English) All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on. 13 (context now colloquial chiefly US English) The buttocks or backside. 14 (context slang English) The male member of a person or animal. 15 (context slang uncountable English) sexual intercourse. 16 (context kayaking English) The stern; the back of the kayak. 17 The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything. 18 A train or company of attendants; a retinue. 19 (context anatomy English) The distal tendon of a muscle. 20 A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style. 21 (context surgery English) A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing. 22 One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times. 23 (context nautical English) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything. 24 (context music English) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem. 25 (context mining English) A tailing. 26 (context architecture English) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile. 27 (cx colloquial dated English) A tailcoat. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To follow and observe surreptitiously. 2 (context architecture English) To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with ''in'' or ''into'' 3 (context nautical English) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor. 4 To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded. 5 To pull or draw by the tail. Etymology 2

  1. (context legal English) limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed. n. (context legal English) Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.

WordNet
tail
  1. v. go after with the intent to catch; "The policeman chased the mugger down the alley"; "the dog chased the rabbit" [syn: chase, chase after, trail, tag, give chase, dog, go after, track]

  2. remove or shorten the tail of an animal [syn: dock, bob]

  3. remove the stalk of fruits or berries

tail
  1. n. the posterior part of the body of a vertebrate especially when elongated and extending beyond the trunk or main part of the body

  2. the time of the last part of something; "the fag end of this crisis-ridden century"; "the tail of the storm" [syn: fag end, tail end]

  3. any projection that resembles the tail of an animal [syn: tail end]

  4. the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; "he deserves a good kick in the butt"; "are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?" [syn: buttocks, nates, arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can, fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, stern, seat, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom, behind, derriere, fanny, ass]

  5. a spy employed to follow someone and report their movements [syn: shadow, shadower]

  6. (usually plural) the reverse side of a coin that does not bear the representation of a person's head [ant: head]

  7. the rear part of an aircraft [syn: tail assembly, empennage]

  8. the rear part of a ship [syn: stern, after part, quarter, poop]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Tail (disambiguation)

A tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body, a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso.

Tail or tails may also refer to:

Tail (Unix)

tail is a program on Unix and Unix-like systems used to display the tail end of a text file or piped data.

Tail (Chinese constellation)

The Tail mansion (尾宿, pinyin: Wěi Xiù) is one of the Twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese constellations. It is one of the eastern mansions of the Azure Dragon.

Tail (song)

"Tail" is the first single by Powderfinger from their debut album Parables for Wooden Ears. The music video for "Tail" appeared on the bonus DVD of Dream Days at the Hotel Existence. The version used in the video is shorter and slightly different in instrumentation.

Tail

The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, reptiles, and birds. While tails are primarily a feature of vertebrates, some invertebrates including scorpions and springtails, as well as snails and slugs, have tail-like appendages that are sometimes referred to as tails. Tailed objects are sometimes referred to as "caudate" and the part of the body associated with or proximal to the tail are given the adjective "caudal".

Tail (horse)

The tail of the horse and other equines consists of two parts, the dock and the skirt. The dock consists of the muscles and skin covering the coccygeal vertebrae. The term "skirt" refers to the long hairs that fall below the dock. On a horse, long, thick tail hairs begin to grow at the base of the tail, and grow along the top and sides of the dock. In donkeys and other members of Equus asinus, as well as some mules, the zebra and the wild Przewalski's horse, the dock has short hair at the top of the dock, with longer, coarser skirt hairs beginning to grow only toward the bottom of the dock. Hair does not grow at all on the underside of the dock.

The tail is used by the horse and other equidae to keep away biting insects, and the position and movement of the tail may provide clues to the animal's physical or emotional state. Tail carriage may also be a breed trait. Tails of horses are often groomed in a number of ways to make them more stylish for show or practical for work. However, some techniques for managing the tails of horses are also controversial and may constitute animal cruelty.

Usage examples of "tail".

Round the corner of the narrow street there came rushing a brace of whining dogs with tails tucked under their legs, and after them a white-faced burgher, with outstretched hands and wide-spread fingers, his hair all abristle and his eyes glinting back from one shoulder to the other, as though some great terror were at his very heels.

He fastened the tails of the albacore together, hoisted the burden of more than two hundredweight to one shoulder, and led the way up the steep path.

Jumping unsteadily to his feet, he whirled to find the creature crouched in the tail of the cart, arms outstretched as if to gather both Alec and him to its breast.

Others milled happily around Alec, slapping him with their plumed tails and sniffing hopefully at the swans hanging at his saddlebow.

Hair that was turned up at the ends of it into little curls by the wind fell all about him--over his eyes, spreading into an American sharp-pointed beard under his chin, making his legs like the legs of an Eskimo, waving in frantic agitation all round his stump of a tail.

Our alpenstocks and muslin tails compelled attention, and as we moved through the village we gathered a considerable procession of little boys and girls, and so went in some state to the castle.

I once saw her gallop down a steep hill in the Arboretum to escape a dog, a German shepherd puppy that had trotted up to her, its tail wagging, for a head pat.

But it is clear that the tail is not the only appendage the Bavian has.

Sir Gervas rode at the head of his musqueteers, whose befloured tails hung limp and lank with the water dripping from them.

Unlike hydra, they have clearly defined head and tail ends, and a much more elaborate behavioural repertoire.

Tail wagging, he ushered me into the sitting room, where he and Bev were watching TV.

The rest of the way back to The Mirage, Hawk and I had a lengthy discussion as to who would tail Bibi in the morning and who would sleep in.

Every minute the king passed her sofa, Biche raised her beautiful head and greeted her royal friend with an intelligent and friendly glance and a gentle wagging of her tail, and this salutation was returned each time by Frederick before he passed on.

Only when collision seemed inevitable did the German pilot lose his nerve and swerve, and Biggies whirled round on his tail in the lightning right-hand turn for which the Camel was famous.

Mr Mouse scampered away and Blinky saw his tail disappear round the bin.