Wiktionary

rattail

See also: rat-tail

English

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A species of rattail fish
 
A man with a rattail haircut

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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rat +‎ tail: all of the nonliteral senses come from something else's fancied resemblance to the tail of a rat.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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rattail (plural rattails)

  2. Any of the large dark-colored deep-sea fish of the Macrouridae family of ray-finned fish.
    Synonyms: grenadier, macrourid, whiptail
  3. A fish, a California chimera (Hydrolagus colliei, syn. Chimaera colliei).
  5. A hairstyle characterized by a long lock of tail-like hair dangling from the back of the head; the dangling lock itself.
  7. A type of file (cutting tool) with a round cross section and usually also a taper toward the distal end.
    Synonym: rat-tail file
  8. (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.
  9. An excrescence growing from the pastern to the middle of the shank of a horse.[1]

Hypernyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “rattail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Further reading

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