bangtail
bangtail noun: the tail of a horse or cow, allowed to grow out and then trimmed horizontally so as to form a tassel; a horse or cow having such a tail.
Noun
bangtail (plural bangtails)
- The tail of a horse or cow, allowed to grow out and then trimmed horizontally so as to form a tassel; a horse or cow having such a tail.
- Two lean, ewe-necked, clipt chestnuts, tucked up in the ribs, with hard work and bad feeding, but with such flowing bang-tails as at once stamped them in the eyes of our friends as “ out-and-out ” thorough-breds—were led up and down by John. […] The bang-tails, no doubt, supposing themselves out...1851, Turning Out a Bagman: A Legend of Brighton Downs, in Charles Dickens, William Harrison Ainsworth, Albert Smith Bentley's Miscellany, Volume XXIX, page 259
- "And did you see a dark chestnut horse; bang tail; star and snip; white hind feet; saddle and bridle on?" I asked.1903, Tom Collins (Joseph Furphy), Such Is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, 2004, page 68
- A racehorse.
- “Eddie!” whinnied Daley, the distraught worshipper of the bang-tails. “Eddie! Phar Lap is dead!”1934, Stanley Walker, City Editor, published 1999, page 99
- Americans bet $5,000,000,000 a year on the galloping bangtails.1937, The American Magazine, volume 124, page 52
- A prostitute.
- An envelope with a perforated flap on which promotional material is printed; the flap on such an envelope.
Verb
bangtail (third-person singular simple present bangtails, present participle bangtailing, simple past and past participle bangtailed)
- To shear off the hair horizontally at the end of a cow or horse's tail.
Examples of bangtail in a sentence
- Lennan held the black horse — a bizarre little beast, all fire and whipcord, with a skin like satin, liquid eyes, very straight hocks, and a thin bangtail reaching down to them.1913, John Galsworthy, The Dark Flower, page 244:
- Once we get the herd we can set up relays to keep the bangtails movin' as we go.2005, Cynthia Queen, The Major's Renegade, page 127:
- I was ridin' the horses then, you understand, and maybe known to take a flutter or two on the bangtails while I was about it.2018, Kasey Michaels, The Promise:
Forms of bangtail
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bangtails |
| alternative form | bang tail |
| alternative form | bang-tail |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bangtails |
| present participle | bangtailing |
| past participle | bangtailed |
| past | bangtailed |
Origin of bangtail
From bang + tail. The primary meaning refers to the sense bang (“fringe of hair cut across the forehead”).
Words formed from bangtail
Phrases with bangtail
Questions about bangtail
- What does bangtail mean?
- Bangtail means the tail of a horse or cow, allowed to grow out and then trimmed horizontally so as to form a tassel; a horse or cow having such a tail.
- How do you use bangtail in a sentence?
- Lennan held the black horse — a bizarre little beast, all fire and whipcord, with a skin like satin, liquid eyes, very straight hocks, and a thin bangtail reaching down to them.
- What part of speech is bangtail?
- Bangtail can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of bangtail?
- The plural of bangtail is bangtails.
Words near bangtail in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bangtail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-bangtail.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bangtail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bangtail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.