rattail
noun/ˈɹæt.teɪl/
Etymology From rat + tail: all of the nonliteral senses come from something else's fancied resemblance to the tail of a rat.
7 senses
- 1Any of the large dark-colored deep-sea fish of the…
- 2A fish, a California chimera (Hydrolagus colliei, syn.…
- 3A hairstyle characterized by a long lock of tail-like…
- 4A type of file (cutting tool) with a round cross section…
- 5A towel that has been tightly twisted along the diagonal…
- 6An excrescence growing from the pastern to the middle of…
- 7The flowering plant Stachytarpheta cayennensis.
Any of the large dark-colored deep-sea fish of the Macrouridae family of ray-finned fish.
- In the North Atlantic, Russians pioneered the harvesting of rattails, a ubiquitous deep fish with big eyes and a long tail that swishes back and forth in a sinuous motion.1995 December 26, William J. Broad, “Creatures of the Deep Find Their Way to the Table”, in The New York Times:
A fish, a California chimera (Hydrolagus colliei, syn. Chimaera colliei).
A hairstyle characterized by a long lock of tail-like hair dangling from the back of the head; the dangling lock itself.
- All of which could explain why, when I had my hair styled in a tight ponytail for the shoot accompanying this feature, most people who saw me thought I looked "unapproachable" (which might simply be a polite way of saying: "You looked like you had a rattail and a Croydon facelift").2013 July 28, Elizabeth Day, The Observer:
A type of file (cutting tool) with a round cross section and usually also a taper toward the distal end.
Slang A towel that has been tightly twisted along the diagonal to make a rudimentary whip with a towel corner at the tip, typically used in juvenile pranks.
An excrescence growing from the pastern to the middle of the shank of a horse.
The flowering plant Stachytarpheta cayennensis.
- Derived terms
- giant rattail, rattail cactus, rattail crassula, rattail radish
- Related terms
- mullet
- Hypernyms
- tail