tailgate
/ˈteɪlˌɡeɪt/
tailgate noun: a hinged board or hatch at the rear of a vehicle that can be lowered for loading and unloading. Also the ellipsis of tailgate party.
Noun
tailgate (plural tailgates)
- 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.
- When they first attached tailgates to cars, we were hooked. By the 1970s, wagons with names like Vista Cruiser and Town & Country sported tailgates as big as dining tables.2007, Stephen Linn, The Ultimate Tailgater's Racing Guide, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- tailboard
- The hinged rear door of a hatchback.
- Open up the tailgate, please, and retrieve her suitcases.
- Synonyms:
- hatch
- 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
- A tunnel for drawing spent air away from the working face of a mine.
Verb
tailgate (third-person singular simple present tailgates, present participle tailgating, simple past and past participle tailgated)
- To drive dangerously close behind another vehicle.
- That idiot has been tailgating me for the last five minutes.
- She also tailgated them at high speed in her convertible yellow Mercedes.2002 October 19, Helen Carter, “That's no lady - that's the heiress who taunted neighbours”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2021
- To follow another person through access control on their access, rather than on one’s own credentials, especially when entering a door controlled by a card reader.
- An email circulated to ABC employees says Gallagher is believed to have tailgated staff walking through the building’s high-security doors.2018 September 10, “ABC tightens Sydney security after man allegedly infiltrates building and assaults employee”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2021
- To privately purchase or sell a security immediately after trading in the same security for a client.
- To participate in a tailgate party.
- “Hey, what are you guys doing?” “Dude, we're gonna tailgate the tryouts.” “Oh, shit. That's a good idea. Oh, you gonna bust out Green Man, bro?” “No. No Green Man.” “What's Green Man?” “Well, in high school, Charlie was like our school mascot.” “A mascot nobody wanted. He'd get wasted and dress in...2007 September 13, Charlie Day & David Hornsby & Glenn Howerton, “The Gang Gets Invincible” (3:56 from the start), in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Charlie Kelly...
- The point, Goldstein discovered through a lot of long days hanging out in parking lots, is that tailgating — the gustatory madness, the multigenerational camaraderie, the decked-out vans — is as essential a part of football as the game itself.2013 September 29, Ken Belson, “The Tailgate Experience, British Style”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2021
Proper noun capitalized: Tailgate
Tailgate
- Synonym of Monicagate.
- Synonyms:
- Monicagate
Also used as
tailgate is also the ellipsis of tailgate party.
tailgate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
tailgate in Hindi
- टेलगेट
tailgate in Tamil
- டெயில்கேட், டெய்ல்கேட், டெய்ல்கேட் செய்ய
tailgate in Marathi
- टेलगेट
tailgate in Urdu
- ٹیلگیٹ
More languagesFewer languages
- tailgate in Bengali
- টেইলগেট, টু টেলগেট, টেলগেট করতে
- tailgate in Telugu
- టెయిల్గేట్, టైల్గేట్
- tailgate in Malayalam
- ടെയിൽഗേറ്റ്, ടൈൽഗേറ്റ്
- tailgate in Kannada
- ಟೈಲ್ಗೇಟ್
- tailgate in Punjabi
- ਟਾਇਲਗੇਟ, ਟੇਲਗੇਟ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਟੈਲਗੇਟ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- tailgate in Gujarati
- ટેઈલગેટ, ટેલેગેટ
- tailgate in Odia
- ଟେଇଲଗେଟ, ଟେଲଗେଟ, ଟେଲ୍ଗେଟ୍ କରିବାକୁ
- tailgate in Nepali
- टेलगेट, टेइलगेट, टेलगेट गर्न
- tailgate in Vietnamese
- bám sát đuôi, dí đít
Synonyms of tailgate
Antonyms
Forms of tailgate
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tailgates |
| alternative form | tail-gate |
| alternative form | tail gate |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tailgates |
| present participle | tailgating |
| past participle | tailgated |
| past | tailgated |
Origin of tailgate
From tail + gate. Compare liftgate.
From tail + -gate, with reference to tail (“sexual intercourse”), as a pun on tailgate.
Words formed from tailgate
Phrases with tailgate
Questions about tailgate
- What does tailgate mean?
- Tailgate means a hinged board or hatch at the rear of a vehicle that can be lowered for loading and unloading.
- What is tailgate in Hindi?
- Tailgate in Hindi is टेलगेट. See Tailgate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tailgate?
- Tailgate can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tailgate?
- Tailgate is pronounced /ˈteɪlˌɡeɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tailgate?
- The plural of tailgate is tailgates.
Words near tailgate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tailgate (page history and authors); Tailgate (page history and authors); tailgate (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tailgate (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tailgate.wav.
Cite this entry: “tailgate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tailgate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.