[f. WHIP sb. 1 + TAIL sb.] Name used (simply or attrib.) for any one of various animals having a long slender tail like a whip-lash: see quots.
1771. J. R. Forster, Flora Amer. Septentr., To Rdr. p. vii. Whiptail forked Fistularia tabaccaria [tobacco-pipe fish].
1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt, New Chum in Queensland Bush, 145 (Morris). Kangaroos of different kinds, the smaller kind, known as pretty faces or whip tails.
1887. Bucks Handbk. Med. Sci., V. 748/1. The genus Thelyphonus (Whip-tail, Nigger Killer, Mule Killer.) [= whip-scorpion].
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., Tasmanian Whiptail, Coryphænoides tasmaniæ, an altogether different fish from Myliobatis aquila, the Eagle or Whiptail Ray [= whip-ray].