tailswing

See also: tail swing

English

Alternative forms

• tail swing

Etymology

From tail +‎ swing.

Noun

tailswing

1. When turning a heavy vehicle, the movement of the rear portion of the vehicle in the opposite direction from the direction the front end turns.
   • 1994, David Needham, Robert Dransfield, Business Studies, →ISBN, page 133:

     The authorities provided the boats, and Smalley mounted machines on them that could dredge and clear weed, working in shallow waterways under low, narrow bridges, unhindered by a counterweight tailswing.

   • 1999, Howard I. Shapiro, Jay P. Shapiro, Lawrence K. Shapiro, Cranes and derricks, →ISBN, page 268:

     The tailswing radius may encroach over an active traffic lane or face interference from an obstruction.

   • 2011, Nat Segnit, Pub Walks in Underhill Country, →ISBN:

     Still, spookiness is a contextual matter, and with a zero-tailswing excavator to clear a larger patio, there'd be nothing to stop an enterprising self-builder taking advantage of the fundamentally sound Cotswold stonework to knock up an attractive, if isolated, starter home or holiday cottage.

   • 2014, Johnny Tipler, Porsche Carrera: The Air-Cooled Era, 1953-1998, →ISBN:

     ...they wouldn't be able to employ the 911's tailswing characteristics with the neutral handling 914/6, and none of them challenged the Alpine Renaults for outright supremacy.

Anagrams

• swingtail