Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use dovetail in a sentence

18 example sentences · noun, verb

Dovetail means the tail of a dove (family Columbidae); also, something having the shape of a dove's tail. Example: “The executive board dovetailed its decision neatly with the prior projects the company had taken up.”

Examples of dovetail by meaning

nounIn full dovetail joint: a type of joint where adjoining components are fastened by multiple tenons cut into wedge...

  • With a warding file cut a dovetail on each of the ends to be joined, as shown by Fig. 1.1900, “Brazing Keys”, in Paul N[ooncree] Hasluck, editor, Cassell’s Cyclopædia of Mechanics […] (First Series), London; Paris: Cassell and...
  • After marking out the pins on the drawer sides, we proceed with the next operation, that is, sawing the dovetails ready for chopping out the waste material.[1921], [William Fairham], “The Dovetail Joint”, in Woodwork Joints: How They are Set Out, How Made and Where Used; […], Philadelphia, Pa....
  • DOVETAIL joints, well known for their strength, have long been used in fine cabinet work.1944 April, Edwin M. Love, “Handmade Dovetails”, in Charles McLendon, editor, The Popular Science Monthly, volume 144, number 4, New York...

verbTo combine or fit (things) together well.

  • The executive board dovetailed its decision neatly with the prior projects the company had taken up.
  • Through my new project, I dovetail my interests in botany and programming.
  • Close contacts are also maintained between the chief operating officers of the railways and the movement and transport officers of the Service departments to dovetail railway transport into the schemes of the fighting forces.1943 March–April, John R. Hind, “The British Railways at War”, in The Railway Magazine, Sutton, London: IPC Transport Press, →ISSN, →OCLC...

verbTo interweave (a number of algorithms or subprograms) so that they can be run more or less simultaneously.

  • However, we can construct a single master algorithm M that DPExact learns from unknown distribution D by simply dovetailing the algorithms A.2002, Nader H. Bshouty, Jeffrey C. Jackson, Christino Tamon, “Exploring Learnability between Exact and PAC”, in Jyrki Kivinen, Robert H....

verbOf several things: to combine or fit together well.

  • The parts of your essay should dovetail so that it is cohesive and coherent.
  • The task now facing Mr Crook and his team in the multi-disciplinary programme is sequencing the works going forward, to ensure track, signalling, station works and overhead line installations dovetail together.2019 October, Philip Sherratt, “Midland Main Line Upgrade Presses On”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN...

More sentences with dovetail

  • The dovetail joint, while more difficult to make, is also quite strong.From the entry joint
  • The identity dovetails with images of environmental purity, artisanality, adaptability, competitiveness, creativity, and sophistication.2008, Christina Stringer, Agri-Food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks, page 115. From the entry artisanality
  • At WLRN Wagner's crisp BBC-esque tone dovetails with the highbrow fare of National Public Radio.2004 October 14, Carl Juste, “British in Miami wade in 'wa-der'”, in The Miami Herald, page 4C. From the entry BBC-esque
  • At times they dovetail; on other occasions the subdramas move at different speeds toward divergent objectives.1987, Gordon MacDonald, Rediscovering Yourself, page 22. From the entry subdrama
  • Dovetailing the signpost — in — with the hidden fodder — sane Roman — is inspired, an embedded style of signposting.2012, David Astle, Puzzled: Secrets and clues from a life in words. From the entry fodder
  • My conclusion dovetails with Fasold's conclusion, which is based on a quite different, more epistemological kind of argument.1991, Walt Wolfram, “The Linguistic Variable: Fact and Fantasy”, in American Speech, volume 66, number 1, page 31. From the entry epistemological
  • Armorial bearings— He bears for Arms : Per fesse dovetail gules and azure, three suns in splendour gold, on a bordure dovetail or, four hurts.1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 1258. From the entry in splendour
  • But there is a counterside to promotional hyperbole, for exaggerated promises that dovetail with people's hopes and expectations open the way to cynicism should promises falter or fail.1998, William D. Foulkes, Shirley V. Hodgson, Inherited Susceptibility to Cancer, page 51. From the entry counterside
  • Houses were invariably built of logs, which, providing the timber was of good quality, were held in place with wooden pegs and dovetail or saddle notch jointery.1997, James W. Darlington, “Farmsteads as Mirrors of Cultural Adjustment and Change: The Ukranian Canadian Experience”, in Great Plains…. From the entry jointery

Meaning of dovetail

  1. noun The tail of a dove (family Columbidae); also, something having the shape of a dove's tail.
  2. noun In full dovetail joint: a type of joint where adjoining components are fastened by multiple tenons cut into wedge shapes resembling a dove's tail, which interlock with mortises having corresponding shapes.
  3. noun A tenon cut into a wedge shape resembling a dove's tail so that it interlocks with a mortise having a corresponding shape in a dovetail joint.

Full definition of dovetail

Questions about dovetail in a sentence

How do you use dovetail in a sentence?
Dovetail is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The executive board dovetailed its decision neatly with the prior projects the company had taken up.”
What is a short sentence with dovetail?
“The dovetail joint, while more difficult to make, is also quite strong.”
What does dovetail mean?
Dovetail means the tail of a dove (family Columbidae); also, something having the shape of a dove's tail.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dovetail (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use dovetail in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/dovetail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.