Tail

subs. (vulgar).—1.  The lower or latter end; the BEHIND (q.v.): see ARSE. Hence, KISS MY TAIL = Kiss my arse: a contemptuous retort; TO TURN TAIL = (1) to turn one’s back on; (2) to run away, to shirk; TOP OVER TAIL = arse over head; THE TAIL END = the FAG-END (q.v.).

  c. 1400.  The Chester Plays, ii. 176.

  [?].  MS. Harl., 1701, f. 59.

  [?].  MS. Cantab., Ff. ii. 38. f. 76.

  1350.  The Turnament of Totenham [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III. 97].

  1460.  Frere and the Boye [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III. 79].

  d. 1529.  SKELTON, The Bouge of Court [CHALMERS, English Poets, ii. 253].

  1551.  STILL, Gammer Gurton’s Needle [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), iii. 216]. Thou wert as good kiss my TAIL.

  1562.  Jack Juggler [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), ii. 130]. Jack Jugg. … thy wits do thee fail. Care. Yea, marry, sir, you have beaten them down into my TAIL.

  1580.  SIDNEY, Arcadia, ii. So would she, as it were, TURN TAIL to the heron, and fly out quite another way.

  1595.  SHAKESPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 3. Pan. Where should I lose my tongue? Launce. In thy tale. Pan. In thy TAIL!

  1598.  FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Culo. The arse, TAIL, fundament, or bum.

  1599.  JOSEPH HALL, Satires, I. i. 11. Nor can I crouch, and writhe my fawning TAYLE. Ibid., IV. ii. And seven more plod at a patron’s TAYLE.

  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Cul. An arse, bumme, TAYLE, nockandroe, fundament.

  1621.  SYLVESTER, Du Bartas. ‘The Furies.’ Our Sire … TURN’D TAIL to God, and to the Fiend his face.

  1632.  JONSON, The Magnetic Lady, v. 5.

  1653.  URQUHART, Rabelais, i. 117. Barytonising with his TAIL.

  1663.  BUTLER, Hudibras, I. iii.

  1673.  COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft (1725), 259.

  1678.  COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie, i. (1770), 9.

  1695.  CONGREVE, Love for Love, i. 1. Without a whole tatter to her TAIL.

  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, A Comical View of London and Westminster, in Works, i. 164. Several TAILS turned up at Pauls School, Merchant-Taylors, &c. for their Repetitions.

  c. 1709.  WARD, Terræ Filius, ii. 28. Let your Servants do their Business without your Watching at their TAILS.

  1771.  SMOLLETT, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1900), 105–9. An’t you ashamed, fellow, to ride postillion without a shirt to cover your backside from the view of the ladies?… Try if you cans’t make peace with my sister. Thou hast given her much offence by showing her thy naked TAIL.

  1774.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 53.

  1872.  W. BLACK, The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton, xxii. The TAIL-END of a shower caught us.

  1874.  BEETON, The Siliad, 15.

  2.  (venery).—(a) The penis: see PRICK; (b) the female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE; (c) a harlot: see TART (GROSE). Also (penis or pudendum) TAIL-GAP, TAIL-GATE, TAIL-HOLE, TAIL-PIKE, TAIL-PIN, TAIL-PIPE, TAIL-TRIMMER, TAIL-TREE or TAIL-TACKLE (penis and testes). Hence TAIL-FEATHERS = the pubic hair: see FLEECE; TAIL-FLOWERS = the menses; TAIL-FRUIT = children; TAIL-FENCE = the hymen; TAIL-JUICE = (a) the semen and (b) urine: also TAIL-WATER; TAIL-WORK (or TAIL-WAGGING) = copulation; TO TAIL (‘to make a SETTLEMENT IN TAIL,’ ‘to go TAIL-TICKLING’ or TWITCHING, ‘to play at UP-TAILS ALL,’ ‘to TURN UP ONE’S TAIL,’ or to ‘GET SHOT IN THE TAIL’) = to copulate; TAIL-TRADING = prostitution; A TENANT-IN-TAIL = (1) a whore (a WAG-TAIL), (2) a KEEPER (q.v.) and (3) the penis; LIGHT (HOT, or WARM) IN THE TAIL = wanton; HOT-TAILED (or WITH TAIL ON FIRE) = infected. See SQUIRREL.

  1363.  LANGLAND, Piers Plowman, 1619. For hue is tykel of hure TAIL … As commune as þa cart-wey.

  1383.  CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, 6047–8, ‘The Wif of Bathes Prologue.’

  c. 1400.  Coventry Mysteries, 134.

  [?].  Commune Secretary and Jalowsye [HALLIWELL].

  d. 1529.  SKELTON, The Bouge of Court [CHALMERS, English Poets, ii. 253].

  15[?].  MS. Poem [Dr. BLISS], quoted by HALLIWELL.

  1599.  JOSEPH HALL, Satires, IV. iv.

  1647–80.  ROCHESTER, Poems.

  16[?].  Old Song, ‘John Anderson My Jo.’

  1694.  MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. xxi. They were pulling and hauling the man like mad, telling him that it is the most grievous … thing in nature for the TAIL to be on fire. Ibid. xxx. I saw some … more diligent in TAILWAGGING than any water-wagtail. Ibid. (1694), The Pantagruelian Prognostication, Hedgewhores, wagtails, cockatrices.

  1697.  VANBRUGH, The Provoked Wife, iv. 6.

  c. 1704.  WARD, Merry Observations upon Every Month, July. TAIL-TRADING Tenants will have so little to do, that they wont be able to earn a Week’s Rent in ready Money in a Month. Ibid. (c. 1709), Terræ Filius, iii. 39. Destroys the Worm call’d Friskin, very troublesome to the TAILS of most young Women.

  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, A Comical View of London and Westminster, in Works, i. 170. Commode-Women … busie with their Heads in the Day-time, and TAILS in the evening. Ibid., ii. 104. Your lover, fair lady, is so fast link’d to his old Duegna’s TAIL [Madame Maintenon] that he thinks no more of you. Ibid., 187. ’Tis enough to put musick into the TAIL of an old woman of fourscore. Ibid., ii. 262. After a good week’s work send her home with foul linen … no money, and perhaps a hot TAIL into the bargain.

  d. 1742.  SOMERVILE, The Incurious Bencher [CHALMERS, English Poets, xi. 238].

  d. 1744.  POPE [CHALMERS, English Poets, xii. 281]. ‘To Mr. John Moore.’

  1774.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 103.

  1782.  G. A. STEVENS, Songs, Comic and Satyrical, ‘The Sentiment Song.’ The nick makes the TAIL stand, the farrier’s wife’s mark.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. CAB … Mother, how many TAILS have you in your cab? how many girls have you in your nanny house?

  3.  (colloquial).—A woman’s dress: espec. when trailing on the ground.

  1774.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 264. Brimstones with their sweeping TAILS.

  1888.  H. JAMES, The Liar, in The Century Magazine, xxxvi. May, 128. He crossed the room, stepping over the TAILS of gowns, and stood before his old friend.

  4.  (common).—The reverse of a coin: spec. the side opposite to that bearing a HEAD (q.v.): chiefly in phrase ‘heads or tails’ in tossing. Hence NEITHER HEAD NOR TAIL = neither one nor the other; quite different.

  1774.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 115.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HARP … is also the Irish expression for ‘woman’ or ‘TAIL’ used in tossing up in Ireland.

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 212. The horse was laden besides with a large bundle of stuffs, of which we could make neither HEAD NOR TAIL.… He had rather toss up heads or TAILS with them than oblige a plain citizen in an honest way.

  1821.  P. EGAN, Life in London, 279. Note. If the party … calls heads or TAILS, and all three coins are as he calls them, he wins.

  5.  (common).—In pl. = a tail-coat, as distinguished from a jacket. CHARITY-TAILS (Harrow) = a tail-coat worn by a boy in the Lower School who is considered by the Headmaster to be tall enough to require them.

  1887.  E. R. PENNELL, Harrow-on-the-Hill, in St. Nicholas, xiv. April, 406. Once a boy has reached the modern remove, he puts on his ‘TAILS,’ or tailed coat.

  6.  (common).—A girl’s hair, curled, plaited, etc., and allowed to hang down the back in a single strand.

  1887.  The Congregationalist, 4 Aug. I noticed half a dozen groups of slender damsels with short frocks and long TAILS.

  7.  (colloquial).—A line of persons waiting in rank; a queue: as outside a theatre, booking-office, etc.

  8.  (old colloquial).—See quots.

  1363.  LANGLAND, Piers Plowman (C), iii. 196.

  1633.  JONSON, A Tale of a Tub, ii. 1.

  1814.  SCOTT, Waverley, xvi. ‘Ah!… if you … saw but the Chief with his TAIL on!’ ‘With his TAIL on?’ echoed Edward…. ‘Yes—that is, with all his usual followers, when he visits those of the same rank.’

  d. 1845.  HOOD, A Tale of a Trumpet.

  9.  (old cant).—A sword (B. E. and GROSE); TAIL-DRAWER = ‘a sword stealer’ (B. E.).

  10.  (cricket).—The last two or three men in a batting eleven to go to the wickets.

  Verb. (Australian).—To tend sheep; to herd cattle.

  1844.  Port Phillip Patriot, 5 Aug., 3, 6. I know many boys, from the age of nine to sixteen years, TAILING cattle.

  1852.  G. C. MUNDY, Our Antipodes, i. 314. The stockman, as he who tends cattle and horses is called, despises the shepherd as a grovelling, inferior creature, and considers ‘TAILING sheep’ as an employment too tardigrade for a man of action and spirit.

  1890.  BOLDREWOOD, A Colonial Reformer, xix. 239. The cattle, no longer ‘TAILED,’ or followed daily, as a shepherd does sheep.

  PHRASES AND COMBINATIONS.  TAIL OF THE EYE = the outer corner of the eye; COW’S-TAIL (nautical) = a frayed rope’s-end, one not properly knotted: hence HANGING IN COW’S TAILS (said of a badly kept ship); TAIL-END = the latter part, the wind-up; WITH ONE’S TAIL BETWEEN ONE’S LEGS = cowed, humiliated, conscious of defeat: also WITH TAIL DOWN; WITH TAIL UP = in good form or spirits; WITH TAIL OUT = angry; WITH TAIL IN THE WATER = thriving; TO FLEE THE TAIL = to near the end; TO TWIST THE LION’S TAIL = to gird at England (or the English people); TO CAST (LAY or THROW) SALT ON THE TAIL (see SALT, and add special quots. infra—GROSE).

  1670.  RAY, Proverbs [BOHN], 427. It is a foolish bird that stayeth the LAYING SALT UPON HER TAIL.

  1838.  WILLIAM WATTS (‘Lucian Redivivus’), Paradise Lost, 66.

  1859.  C. READE, Love Me Little, Love Me Long, xiv. Miss Lucy noticed this out of the TAIL OF HER EYE.

  1870.  W. M. BAKER, The New Timothy, 264. Zed and Toad come, and very much as if with their TAILS BETWEEN THEIR LEGS.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, vii. Covey stands at the street corner with his hands in his pockets, and observes out of the TAIL OF HIS EYE.

  Also PROVERBS AND PROVERBIAL SAYINGS:  ‘The devil wipes his TAIL with the poor man’s pride’ (RAY); ‘BETWEENE two stools my TAILE goes to the ground’ (HEYWOOD); ‘To make a rod for one’s own TAIL’ (HEYWOOD); ‘Like lambs, you do nothing but suck and wag your TAILS’; ‘She goes as if she cracked nuts with her TAIL’; ‘To look like a dog that has lost its TAIL’; ‘She’s like a cat, she’ll play with her own TAIL’; ‘Make not thy TAIL broader than thy wings’ (= Keep not too many attendants); ‘His TAIL will catch the chin-cough’ (said of one sitting on the ground); ‘As hasty as a sheep, as soon as the TAIL is up the turd is out’; ‘As free as an ape is of his TAIL’; ‘He that aught the cow gangs nearest her TAIL’; ‘He holds the serpent by the TAIL’ (of anything absurd or foolish); ‘To grow like a cow’s TAIL’ (i.e., downwards); ‘Lay the head of the sow to the TAIL of the grice’; ‘To have a slippery eel by the TAIL’ (of anything uncertain); ‘It melts like butter in a sow’s TAIL’; ‘To swallow an ox, and be choked with the TAIL’; ‘The higher the ape goes, the more he shows his TAIL’; ‘There is as much hold of his word as of a wet eel by the TAIL’; ‘He hath eaten a horse and the TAIL hangs out of his mouth.’