Word.ws English Dictionary

the tail wags the dog

the tail wags the dog phrase: a minor or secondary part of something is controlling or dominating the whole or the main part.

Phrase

the tail wags the dog

  1. A minor or secondary part of something is controlling or dominating the whole or the main part.
    • This is classic for all non-profit agencies: the tail wags the dog. If you have a foundation willing to fund a particular kind of program, then an organization will write that kind of grant. Suddenly, you're doing a program to where the bucks are. Maybe that's not within the original mission of the...1987 May 9, Gordon Gottlieb, Richard Burns, Sue Hyde, “Homocrats and Liberationists: Burns and Hyde Consider the Community's Institutions”, in Gay Community News, page 8

Origin of the tail wags the dog

See tail wagging the dog.

Questions about the tail wags the dog

What does the tail wags the dog mean?
The tail wags the dog means a minor or secondary part of something is controlling or dominating the whole or the main part.
What part of speech is the tail wags the dog?
The tail wags the dog is a phrase.

Words near the tail wags the dog in the dictionary

  1. the sun is over the yardarm
  2. the sun is setting on something
  3. the sun sets on something
  4. the switch in time that saved nine
  5. the tackies hit the tar
  6. the tail wags the dog
  7. the tar out of
  8. the terrorists will have won
  9. the thick plottens
  10. the thing
  11. the thing is

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the tail wags the dog (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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