horsetail

Noun

horsetail (plural horsetails)

1. (literal) A tail of a horse.
2. Any of various simple vascular plants, of the order Equisetales, that have hollow stems and produce spores.
3. A Turkish standard denoting rank.
   • Commanders were distinguished by the number of horsetails carried before them. The sultan had seven, the grand vizier five, and the pashas three, two, or one.
4. A mare's tail, a water plant in genus Hippuris.
5. Any waterfall, the descending water of which maintains contact with bedrock most of the time.
6. cauda equina, a bundle of nerve fibers.
7. (rare) A ponytail hairstyle.
   • They were psychic mediums that wore a horsetail hairstyle. They believed that their long hair acted as cosmic antennae to receive alien communication from beyond.2011, George Romero, The Rescue, page 160
   • The woman was tall and rail-thin, bony across the shoulders and breast, with arms and legs of wire and gristle. A fighter, she wore the traditional haircut, shaved temples, roach of hair tugged back in a horsetail.2012, Clayton Emery, Mortal Consequences: Forgotten Realms