Word.ws English Dictionary

tail-gate

tail-gate is the alternative form of tailgate.

Meaning of tailgate

Noun

tailgate (plural tailgates)

  1. A hinged board or hatch at the rear of a vehicle that can be lowered for loading and unloading.
    • Drop the tailgate, please, and I'll load these pallets.
    Synonyms:
    tailboard
  2. (UK, especially) The hinged rear door of a hatchback.
    • Open up the tailgate, please, and retrieve her suitcases.
    Synonyms:
    hatch
  3. The downstream gate in the lock on a canal or river, or in an irrigation system.
    • The locktender closed the tailgate and the chamber started to fill.
    Antonyms:
    headgate
  4. A tunnel for drawing spent air away from the working face of a mine.

See all 9 meanings of tailgate

Forms of tail-gate

pluraltail-gates

Questions about tail-gate

What is tail-gate the alternative form of?
Tail-gate is the alternative form of tailgate.

Words near tail-gate in the dictionary

  1. Tail-End Charlie
  2. Tail-End Charlies
  3. tail-ender
  4. tail-enders
  5. tail-ends
  6. tail-gate
  7. tail-gates
  8. tail-gut
  9. tail-guts
  10. tail-napkin
  11. tail-napkins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tail-gate (page history and authors); tailgate (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:

Cite this entry: “tail-gate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tail-gate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.