fishtail
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English fisch tayle, equivalent to fish + tail.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]fishtail (plural fishtails)
- The tail of a fish, or an object resembling this.
- Coordinate terms: fishhead, whale tail
- The skidding of the back of a vehicle from side to side.
- A kind of chisel with a flared blade.
- Short for fishtail palm.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]The swinging of the back of a vehicle from side to side
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Verb
[edit]fishtail (third-person singular simple present fishtails, present participle fishtailing, simple past and past participle fishtailed)
- (intransitive) To swing the back of a vehicle (originally an aircraft) from side to side.
- As we approached the runway, the pilot fishtailed slightly to reduce landing speed.
- (transitive) To cause the back of (a vehicle) to swing from side to side.
- 2013, Jeffrey Bernhardt, The Indian: America's Waking Dream, Berkeley Radicals, War, Riots, Drugs and Revolution:
- But Bruce wasn't done baiting the jocks. He fishtailed the car; it swerved and reversed direction, heading straight for the three jocks who were chasing them on foot. It looked like he was going to run the car over the three men.
- (intransitive) To move with the tail swinging from side to side in this way.
- 1943, Raymond Chandler, The High Window, Penguin, published 2005, page 3:
- A large black and gold butterfly fish-tailed in and landed on a hydrangea bush almost at my elbow, moved its wings slowly up and down a few times, then took off heavily […]
- 2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55:
- Having reversed at Eastbourne, I am in the trailing car, which leaps and fishtails around so much on our way to Bexhill that I have trouble writing coherent notes.
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