Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TAG'GED, pp.

Fitted with a point; appended to.

TAG'GING, ppr.

Fitting with a point; fitting one thing to another.

TAG'LIA, n. [It.]

In mechanics, a particular combination of pulleys. Brande.

TAG'-SORE, n.

A disease in sheep. Cyc.

TAG'-TAIL, n. [tag and tail.]

A worm which has its tail of another color. Walton.

TAIL, n.¹ [Sax. tægl; Ice. tagl; dim. of tag, a shoot, or from Goth. taga, hair.]

1. The part of an animal which terminates its body behind. In many quadrupeds, the tail is a shoot or projection covered with hair. In fowls, the tail consists of feathers, or is covered with them, which serve to assist in the direction of their flight. In fishes the tail is formed usually by a gradual sloping of the body, ending in a fin. The tail of a fish may assist the animal in steering, but its principal use is to propel the fish forward. It is the instrument of swimming.
2. The lower part, noting inferiority. The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail. Deut. xxviii.
3. Any thing hanging long; a catkin. Harvey.
4. The hinder part of any thing. Butler.
5. In anatomy, that tendon of a muscle which is fixed to the movable part. Cyc.
6. In botany, the tail of a seed, is a downy or feathery appendage to certain seeds, formed of the permanent elongated style. Cyc.
7. Horse's tail, among the Tartars and Chinese, is an ensign or flag; among the Turks, a standard borne before the grand visier, bashaws and the sangiacs. For this purpose, it is fitted to a half-pike with a gold button, and is called toug. There are bashaws of one, two and three tails. Cyc.
8. In heraldry, the tail of a hart.
9. In music, the part of a note running upward or downward.
10. The extremity or last end; as, the tail of a storm. Tail of a comet, a luminous train which extends from the nucleus in a direction opposite to the sun. To turn tail, is to run away; to flee. Tail of a lock, on a canal, the lower end, or entrance into the lower pond.

TAIL, n.² [Fr. tailler, Sp. tallar, It. tagliare, Port. talhar, Ir. tallam, to cut off; W. toli, to curtail, to separate, to deal out, from tawl, a sending or throwing, a cast or throw, a separation, diminution, interruption. This is from the same root as deal. Class Dl, No. 15. See Deal.]

In law, an estate in tail is a limited fee; an estate limited to certain heirs, and from which the other heirs are precluded. Estates tail are general or special; general, where lands and tenements are given to one, and to the heirs of his body begotten; special, where the gift is restrained to certain heirs of the donee's body, as to his heirs by a particular woman named. [See Entail.] Blackstone.

TAIL, v.t.

To pull by the tail. Hudibras.

TAIL-AGE, or TAL'LI-AGE, n. [Fr. tailler, to cut off.]

Literally, a share; hence, a tax or toll. [Obs.] Blackstone.

TAIL-ED, a.

Having a tail. Grew.

TAIL-INGS, n. [plur. from tail.]

The lighter parts of grain blown to one end of the heap in winnowing. [Local.] Cyc.

TAIL-LESS, a.

Having no tail. Lawrence.

TAIL-OR, n. [Fr. tailleur; from tailler, to cut, It. tagliare, Ir. tallam.]

One whose occupation is to cut out and make men's garments.

TAIL-OR, v.i.

To practice making men's clothes. Green.

TAIL-OR-ESS, n.

A female who makes garments for men.

TAIL-OR-ING, n.

The business of a tailor.

TAIL-PIECE, n.

In a violin, a piece of ebony attached to the end of the instrument, to which the strings are fastened. Cyc.

TAIL-RACE, n.

The stream of water which runs from the mill, after it has been applied to produce the motion of the wheel.

TAINT, n.

1. Tincture; stain.
2. Infection; corruption; depravation. Keep children from the taint of low and vicious company.
3. A stain; a spot; a blemish on reputation. Shak.
4. An insect; a kind of spider. Brown.

TAINT, v.i.

1. To be infected or corrupted; to be touched with something corrupting. I can not taint with fear. Shak.
2. To be affected with incipient putrefaction. Meat soon taints in warm weather.

TAINT, v.t. [Fr. teindre, to dye or stain; L. tingo; Gr. τεγγω, to dye, literally to dip, primarily to thrust, the sense of L. tango; and n not being radical, the real word is tego or tago, coinciding with Eng. duck; hence its sense in extinguo. See Dye, Attaint and Tinge.]

1. To imbue or impregnate, as with some extraneous matter which alters the sensible qualities of the substance. The spaniel struck / Stiff by the tainted gale. Thomson.
2. More generally, to impregnate with something odious, noxious or poisonous; as, putrid substances taint the air.
3. To infect; to poison. The breath of consumptive lungs is said to taint sound lungs. Harvey.
4. To corrupt, as by incipient putrefaction; as, tainted meat.
5. To stain; to sully; to tarnish. We come not by the way of accusation / To taint that honor every good tongue blesses. Shak.
6. To corrupt, as blood; to attaint. [Not in use.] [See Attaint.]

TAINT-ED, pp.

Impregnated with something noxious, disagreeable to the senses or poisonous; infected; corrupted; stained.

TAINT-FREE, a. [taint and free.]

Free from taint or guilt. Heath.

TAINT-ING, ppr.

Impregnating with something foul or poisonous; infecting; corrupting; staining.

TAINT-LESS, a.

Free from taint or infection; pure. Swift.