Word.ws English Dictionary

turns tail

turns tail is the third-person singular simple present indicative of turn tail.

Meaning of turn tail

Verb

turn tail (third-person singular simple present turns tail, present participle turning tail, simple past and past participle turned tail)

  1. (idiomatic) To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee.
    • A box-lobby lion or a Regent-street animal . . . will never bite, and, if you offer to attack him manfully, will fairly turn tail and sneak off.1838, Charles Dickens, “Some Particulars Concerning A Lion”, in Mudfog and Other Sketches

Questions about turns tail

What is turns tail the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Turns tail is the third-person singular simple present indicative of turn tail.

Words near turns tail in the dictionary

  1. turns someone's crank
  2. turns someone's head
  3. turns something into an art form
  4. turns south
  5. turns square corners
  6. turns tail
  7. turns the air blue
  8. turns the boat
  9. turns the boat around
  10. turns the clock back
  11. turns the clocks back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turns tail (page history and authors); turn tail (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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