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 feathers
  2. tail fin
  3. tail fins
  4. tail flap
  5. tail flaps
  6. tail gate
  7. tail gates
  8. tail grape
  9. tail gunner
  10. tail gunners
  11. tail gut

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.