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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Swallow-tailed

Swallow-tailed \Swal"low-tailed`\, a.

  1. Having a tail like that of a swallow; hence, like a swallow's tail in form; having narrow and tapering or pointed skirts; as, a swallow-tailed coat.

  2. (Carp.) United by dovetailing; dovetailed.

    Swallow-tailed duck (Zo["o]l.), the old squaw.

    Swallow-tailed gull (Zo["o]l.), an Arctic gull ( Xema furcata), which has a deeply forked tail.

    Swallow-tailed hawk or Swallow-tailed kite (Zo["o]l.), the fork-tailed kite.

    Swallow-tailed moth (Zo["o]l.), a European moth ( Urapteryx sambucaria) having tail-like lobes on the hind wings.

Wiktionary
swallow-tailed

a. Having a tail that is forked like a swallow's.

WordNet
swallow-tailed

adj. (especially of butterflies and birds) having a forked tail like that of a swallow

Usage examples of "swallow-tailed".

And I should be a first-class commodore, Stephen, with a broad swallow-tailed burgee, a captain under me and a pennantlieutenant, not like that hard-labour Mauritius campaign, when I almost had to win the anchor myself as a mere secondclass dogsbody.

Now and then he sees the Irishman of the stage, clad in the short swallow-tailed coat with pocket-flaps, the corduroy breeches, the blue worsted stockings and misshapen caubeen, made familiar by a thousand novels and plays.

A mellow sea-breeze came cantering out of the west to lift among the sails the Royal Heraldry of the pennoncels and the long ribbons of streamers, the gay banners and the swallow-tailed gittons, laying them straight along its flowing mane.

The-red and white Polish swallow-tailed flags of the Lancers made a thicket of colour, while guidons, standards, banners, pennants and gilded Eagles studded the watery sky.

He wears a beaver hat and swallow-tailed coat, girdled with a sailor-belt and sheath-knife.

One afternoon, when nearing my own home, I met him in one of his favourite disguises,a long blue swallow-tailed coat, striped cotton trousers, large turn-over collar, blacked face, and white hat, carrying a tambourine.

He wore his usual garments: purple trousers tight at the knee but baggy elsewhere, and a swallow-tailed coat cut of jermot hide, a scaly leather imported through Semling from some desert planet at the end of nowhere.

Actually the thought of him in elegant Regency knee-smalls and a swallow-tailed coat .

Actually the thought of him in elegant Regency knee-smalls and a swallow-tailed coat .

He was relieved to see that Miles did at least possess knee-smalls and a swallow-tailed coat, but his fingers itched to rearrange a necktie which he thought deplorable, and to brush into a more fashionable style his uncle's raven locks.

Hethersett himself came out of the house, very natty in knee-breeches and silk stockings, a waistcoat of watered silk, a swallow-tailed coat, and a snowy cravat arranged by his expert hands in the intricate style known as the Mathematical Tie.