Tail
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) A tailed coat; a tail coat.
(2): ( n.) In some forms of rope-laying machine, pieces of rope attached to the iron bar passing through the grooven wooden top containing the strands, for wrapping around the rope to be laid.
(3): ( n.) In flying machines, a plane or group of planes used at the rear to confer stability.
(4): ( n.) One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
(5): ( n.) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
(6): ( n.) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part, as a slate or tile.
(7): ( n.) Same as Tailing, 4.
(8): ( n.) The distal tendon of a muscle.
(9): ( n.) The side of a coin opposite to that which bears the head, effigy, or date; the reverse; - rarely used except in the expression "heads or tails," employed when a coin is thrown up for the purpose of deciding some point by its fall.
(10): ( n.) A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
(11): ( n.) Hence, the back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything, - as opposed to the head, or the superior part.
(12): ( n.) Any long, flexible terminal appendage; whatever resembles, in shape or position, the tail of an animal, as a catkin.
(13): ( n.) The terminal, and usually flexible, posterior appendage of an animal.
(14): ( a.) Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed; as, estate tail.
(15): ( n.) Limitation; abridgment.
(16): ( n.) See Tailing, n., 5.
(17): ( v. t.) To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
(18): ( v. t.) To pull or draw by the tail.
(19): ( v. i.) To hold by the end; - said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; - with in or into.
(20): ( n.) A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; - called also tailing.
(21): ( v. i.) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; - said of a vessel at anchor; as, this vessel tails down stream.
(22): ( n.) A downy or feathery appendage to certain achenes. It is formed of the permanent elongated style.
(23): ( n.) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
King James Dictionary [2]
TAIL, n.
1. The part of an animal which terminates its body behind. In many quadrupeds, the tail is a shoot or projection covered with hair. In fowls, the tail consists of feathers, or is covered with them, which serve to assist in the direction of their flight. In fishes the tail is formed usually by a gradual sloping of the body, ending in a fin. The tail of a fish may assist the animal in steering, but its principal use is to propel the fish forward. It is the instrument of swimming. 2. The lower part,noting inferiority.
The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail. Deuteronomy 28
3. Any thing hanging long a catkin. 4. The hinder part of any thing. 5. In anatomy, that tendon of a muscle which is fixed to the movable part. 6. In botany, the tail of a seed, is a downy or feathery appendage to certain seeds, formed of the permanent elongated style. 7. Horse's tail, among the Tartars and Chinese, is an ensign or flag among the Turks, a standard borne before the grand visier, bashaws and the sangiacs. For this purpose, it is fitted to a half-pike with a gold button, and is called toug. There are bashaws of one, two and three tails. 8. In heraldry, the tail of a hart. 9. In music, the part of a note running upwards or downwards. 10. The extremity or last end as the tail of a storm.
Tail of a comet, a luminous train which extends from the nucleus in a direction opposite to the sun.
To turn tail, is to run away to flee.
Tail of a lock, on a canal, the lower end, or entrance into the lower pond.
Tail-piece, of a violin, is a piece of ebony attached to the end of the instrument, to which the strings are fastened.
TAIL, n. In law, an estate in tail is a limited fee an estate limited to certain heirs, and from which the other heirs are precluded. Estates tail are general or special general, where lands and tenements are given to one, and to the heirs of his body begotten special, where the gift is restrained to certain heirs of the donee s body, as to his heirs by a particular woman names. See Entail.
TAIL, To pull by the tail.
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [3]
"the tail of an animal," occurs in Revelation 9:10 (twice),19; 12:4.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types [4]
Deuteronomy 28:13 (a) The Lord uses this figure to describe the very low and degraded condition into which Israel would descend when she turned away from the Lord as her leader to follow idols. She would become the lowest of all nations.
Isaiah 7:4 (a) Here is another description of GOD's contempt for the two nations who by GOD's grace were unable to hurt Israel because He was protecting them.
Isaiah 9:15 (a) The false prophet is thus described. By his evil sayings he becomes the object of contempt instead of the object of praise and honor.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [5]
tāl ( אליה , 'alyāh ; זנב , zānābh ; οὐρά , ourá ): The broad tail of the Syrian sheep, wrongly rendered "rump" (which see) in the King James Version, is mentioned as one of the portions of sacrifice which was burned on the altar as a sweet savor to God ( Exodus 29:22 ). The 2nd Hebrew word is used of the tails of serpents ( Exodus 4:4 ), of foxes, which Samson tied together in his cruel sport, in order to destroy the grainfields of the Philistines by means of attached firebrands ( Judges 15:4 , etc.). The following seems to be an allusion to this incident: "Fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah" ( Isaiah 7:4 ).
Figurative : "Tail" = inferiority, as opposed to "head" = superiority, leadership. "Yahweh will make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of Yahweh" ( Deuteronomy 28:13; compare also Deuteronomy 28:44 ).
In the New Testament we find oura used of the apocalyptic animals, scorpions, horses, and the dragon ( Revelation 9:10 , Revelation 9:19; Revelation 12:4 ).
