Word.ws English Dictionary

tail between one's legs

tail between one's legs phrase: defeated; in a cowardly or miserable manner.

Phrase

tail between one's legs

  1. Defeated; in a cowardly or miserable manner.
    • He came back home, tail between his legs.
    • "I wouldn't do that," said Mrs. MacAndrew. "I'd give him all the rope he wants. He'll come back with his tail between his legs and settle down again quite comfortably."1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XV, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tail, between, one's, legs.
    • Oft haue I ſeene a hot ore-weening Curre / Run backe and bite, becauſe he was with-held, / Who being ſuffer'd with the Beares fell paw, / Hath clapt his taile, between his legges and cride,1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

tail between one's legs meaning in Tagalog and Thai

tail between one's legs in Tagalog

defeated; in a cowardly or miserable manner
bahag ang buntot

tail between one's legs in Thai

defeated; in a cowardly or miserable manner
หางจุกตูด hǎang-jùk-dtùut

Origin of tail between one's legs

From the body posture of a dog that is worried or frightened.

Questions about tail between one's legs

What does tail between one's legs mean?
Tail between one's legs means defeated; in a cowardly or miserable manner.
What is tail between one's legs in Tagalog?
Tail between one's legs in Tagalog is bahag ang buntot. See Tail between one's legs meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is tail between one's legs?
Tail between one's legs is a phrase.

Words near tail between one's legs in the dictionary

  1. taikonaut
  2. taikonauts
  3. taikos
  4. tail
  5. tail away
  6. tail between one's legs
  7. tail block
  8. tail blocks
  9. tail bone
  10. tail bones
  11. tail boom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tail between one's legs (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tail between one's legs.ogg.

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