pigtails

Noun

pigtail (plural pigtails)

1. (literally) The tail of a pig.
2. Tobacco twisted into a string or roll.
   • One person […] continued constantly to ply him with the very best pig-tail tobacco, which he had most carefully cut in very small pieces purposely for him.1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 265
3. A braided plait of hair; queue.
   • Let padded breasts, high coat collars, stiff stocks, broad-shouldered straps, tight belts, trowser-straps and boots be consigned to the tomb of pigtails and powder.1861 May 1, “Volunteer Uniforms”, in The New York Times, volume X, number 3000, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2025, page 4, column 5
   1. (especially) Either of a pair of braids or tails worn on the sides of the head.
      • [I]t was something that every schoolboy of my generation almost `had' to do, as obligatory a proof of impending manliness as scrumping apples or pulling girls' pigtails.2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 12
   2. (in plural) A hairstyle with a pair of pigtails.
   3. (colloquial, in plural) A person who wears pigtails.
      • […] Chinese, whom he called “pigtails”; or Indians, whom he dismissed as “baboos.”[2021 October 26, Peter Baker, “The Case Against Winston Churchill”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

See all 10 meanings of pigtail