Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Refuse or dross remaining after ore has been processed.
- noun Architecture The portion of a tailed beam, brick, or board inside a wall.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In elect.: In telegraphy, especially through cables, the discharge current due to the capacity of the line which continues to flow for an appreciable time after the signaling impulse has been received and modifies the character of the latter.
- noun In automatic teleg., a mark, on the recording-tape of a receiving instrument, which is not caused by the signaling impulse proper but by the discharge current from the line.
- noun In prospecting for coal, the outcrop of a carbon-carrying stratum at the surface of the ground. Called also
smut and blossom. The vein peters out at the surface, or tails away to nothing, but leaves a stain under weathering. - noun In building, same as
tail , 5 . - noun In surgery, same as
tail , 5 . - noun plural The parts or a part of any incoherent or fluid material separated as refuse, or separately treated as inferior in quality or value; leavings; remainders; dregs.
- noun In calico-printing, a fault of impression on some part of the fabric, when the colors are blurred or altogether absent, through some defect in operation or treatment.
- noun A reckoning; tally; account.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Arch.) The part of a projecting stone or brick inserted in a wall.
- noun (Surg.) Same as
Tail , n., 8 (a). - noun obsolete Sexual intercourse.
- noun The lighter parts of grain separated from the seed threshing and winnowing; chaff.
- noun (Mining) The refuse part of stamped ore, thrown behind the tail of the buddle or washing apparatus. It is dressed over again to secure whatever metal may exist in it. Called also
tails . - noun (Elec.) A prolongation of current in a telegraph line, due to capacity in the line and causing signals to run together.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
tail . - noun The act of
following someone. - noun architecture The part of a projecting stone or brick inserted in a wall.
- noun obsolete
sexual intercourse - noun obsolete The lighter parts of grain separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing;
chaff .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the act of following someone secretly
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Then a 4-1/2 year old buck came in tailing a doe that was in estrous.
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That heated water is then dumped into an ever-increasing number of so-called tailing ponds -- which are really the size of lakes -- to begin a process of settling out the clay and sand and recycling the water to be used again.
Frances Beinecke: America's Other Foreign Oil: Seeing Canada's Tar Sands Up Close 2009
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If you brake too soon, with the tip held too high, the forward-moving line will collide either with the rod or with itself, creating what's called a tailing loop.
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The Army Corps has often issued permits to create so-called tailing ponds.
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The Army Corps has often issued permits to create so-called tailing ponds.
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The Army Corps has often issued permits to create so-called tailing ponds.
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Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
A Nation Slumbers As Our Liberties Are Threatened « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2009
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The pastime of "tailing" a bull is somewhat singular.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 16, February, 1859 Various
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Such an impulse, following immediately upon the interruption of the circuit of the transmitting battery, acts to destroy the effect of the "tailing" or static discharge of the line, L, upon the receiving instrument, and also to neutralize the same throughout the line.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 Various
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That first assignment of "tailing" kept him thirty-six hours without sleep, but he stuck to his trail, stuck to it with the blind pertinacity of a bloodhound, and at the end transcended mere animalism by buying a tip from a friendly bartender.
Never-Fail Blake Arthur Stringer 1912
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