tail
verb/teɪl/
/teɪl/
Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they tail | /teɪl/ /teɪl/ |
| he / she / it tails | /teɪlz/ /teɪlz/ |
| past simple tailed | /teɪld/ /teɪld/ |
| past participle tailed | /teɪld/ /teɪld/ |
| -ing form tailing | /ˈteɪlɪŋ/ /ˈteɪlɪŋ/ |
- tail somebody to follow somebody closely, especially in order to watch where they go and what they do synonym shadow
- A private detective had been tailing them for several weeks.
- She was closely tailed by a detective.
- They decided to let him go and then tail him.
Homophones tail | taletail tale/teɪl//teɪl/- tail noun
- The peacock fans out its magnificent tail to attract females.
- tail verb
- A spy is sent to tail the family and find out everything they do.
- tale noun
- She told the children the tale of the tortoise and the hare.
Word OriginOld English tæg(e)l, from a Germanic base meaning ‘hair, hairy tail’; related to Middle Low German tagel ‘twisted whip, rope's end’. The early sense of the verb (early 16th cent.) was ‘fasten to the back of something’.Definitions on the go
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Idioms
See tail in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarytop and tail something
- (British English) to cut the top and bottom parts off fruit and vegetables to prepare them to be cooked or eatenMore Like This Alliteration in idiomsAlliteration in idioms
- belt and braces
- black and blue
- born and bred
- chalk and cheese
- chop and change
- done and dusted
- down and dirty
- in dribs and drabs
- eat somebody out of house and home
- facts and figures
- fast and furious
- first and foremost
- forgive and forget
- hale and hearty
- hem and haw
- kith and kin
- mix and match
- part and parcel
- puff and pant
- to rack and ruin
- rant and rave
- risk life and limb
- short and sweet
- signed and sealed
- spick and span
- through thick and thin
- this and that
- top and tail
- tried and tested
- wax and wane
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tail