What is "tailor herring"

Tailor \Tai"lor\, n. [OF. tailleor, F. tailleur, fr. OF. taillier, F. tailler to cut, fr. L. talea a rod, stick, a cutting, layer for planting. Cf. Detail, Entail, Retail, Tally, n.]

1. One whose occupation is to cut out and make men's garments; also, one who cuts out and makes ladies' outer garments.

   Well said, good woman's tailor . . . I would thou wert a man's tailor.
   --Shak.

2. (Zo["o]l.)

   1. The mattowacca; -- called also tailor herring.

   2. The silversides.

3. (Zo["o]l.) The goldfish. [Prov. Eng.]

   Salt-water tailor (Zo["o]l.), the bluefish. [Local, U. S.]
   --Bartlett.

   Tailor bird (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of small Asiatic and East Indian singing birds belonging to Orthotomus, Prinia, and allied genera. They are noted for the skill with which they sew leaves together to form nests. The common Indian species are Orthotomus longicauda, which has the back, scapulars, and upper tail coverts yellowish green, and the under parts white; and the golden-headed tailor bird ( Orthotomus coronatus), which has the top of the head golden yellow and the back and wings pale olive-green.

Fall \Fall\, n.

1. The act of falling; a dropping or descending be the force of gravity; descent; as, a fall from a horse, or from the yard of ship.

2. The act of dropping or tumbling from an erect posture; as, he was walking on ice, and had a fall.

3. Death; destruction; overthrow; ruin.

   They thy fall conspire.
   --Denham.

   Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
   --Prov. xvi. 18.

4. Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; termination of greatness, power, or dominion; ruin; overthrow; as, the fall of the Roman empire.

   Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall.
   --Pope.

5. The surrender of a besieged fortress or town; as, the fall of Sebastopol.

6. Diminution or decrease in price or value; depreciation; as, the fall of prices; the fall of rents.

7. A sinking of tone; cadence; as, the fall of the voice at the close of a sentence.

8. Declivity; the descent of land or a hill; a slope.

9. Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a precipice or steep; -- usually in the plural, sometimes in the singular; as, the falls of Niagara.

10. The discharge of a river or current of water into the ocean, or into a lake or pond; as, the fall of the Po into the Gulf of Venice.
    --Addison.

11. Extent of descent; the distance which anything falls; as, the water of a stream has a fall of five feet.

12. The season when leaves fall from trees; autumn.

    What crowds of patients the town doctor kills, Or how, last fall, he raised the weekly bills.
    --Dryden.

13. That which falls; a falling; as, a fall of rain; a heavy fall of snow.

14. The act of felling or cutting down. ``The fall of timber.''
    --Johnson.

15. Lapse or declension from innocence or goodness. Specifically: The first apostasy; the act of our first parents in eating the forbidden fruit; also, the apostasy of the rebellious angels.

16. Formerly, a kind of ruff or band for the neck; a falling band; a faule.
    --B. Jonson.

17. That part (as one of the ropes) of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting.

    Fall herring (Zo["o]l.), a herring of the Atlantic ( Clupea mediocris); -- also called tailor herring, and hickory shad.

    To try a fall, to try a bout at wrestling.
    --Shak.