[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.

1

1771.  J. R. Forster, Flora Amer. Septentr., To Rdr. p. vii. Whiptail forked Fistularia tabaccaria [tobacco-pipe fish].

2

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.

3

1887.  Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., V. 748/1. The genus Thelyphonus (Whip-tail, Nigger Killer, Mule Killer.) [= whip-scorpion].

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1898.  Morris, Austral Eng., Tasmanian Whiptail,… Coryphænoides tasmaniæ,… an altogether different fish from Myliobatis aquila, the Eagle or Whiptail Ray [= whip-ray].

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