Word.ws English Dictionary

whale tail

whale tail noun: an unintentional display of a thong above the waistband of trousers etc.

whale tail: an unintentional display of a thong above the waistband of trousers etc
Image: screw badluck, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

whale tail (plural whale tails)

  1. (slang) An unintentional display of a thong above the waistband of trousers etc.
    • So, next time you see a mom with a "whale tail" peeking out of her pants while she puts in a car seat, remember, "You can't judge a book by its cover."2007, Samantha Williams, “Dress to Impress Your Kids”, in The Daily News-Journal
  2. (slang) A kind of large automotive rear spoiler.
    • the duck-tail spoiler was replaced with a whale tail for the US version of the Carrera.1997, Bruce Anderson, Porsche 911 Performance Handbook, page 16
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: The tail of a whale.

Forms of whale tail

pluralwhale tails

Questions about whale tail

What does whale tail mean?
Whale tail means an unintentional display of a thong above the waistband of trousers etc.
What part of speech is whale tail?
Whale tail is a noun.
What is the plural of whale tail?
The plural of whale tail is whale tails.

Words near whale tail in the dictionary

  1. whale safari
  2. whale safaris
  3. whale shark
  4. whale sharks
  5. whale shot
  6. whale tail
  7. whale tails
  8. whale watch
  9. whale watched
  10. whale watcher
  11. whale watchers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whale 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-whale tail.ogg.

Cite this entry: “whale tail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whale_tail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.