turn tail
See also: turntail
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit](This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]turn tail (third-person singular simple present turns tail, present participle turning tail, simple past and past participle turned tail)
- (idiomatic) To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee.
- Synonym: turn on one's heel
- 1838, Charles Dickens, “Some Particulars Concerning A Lion”, in Mudfog and Other Sketches:
- 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.
- 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Flight in the Heather: The Heugh of Corrynakiegh”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 202:
- [H]e stormed at me all through the lessons in a very violent manner of scolding, [...] I was often tempted to turn tail, but held my ground for all that, and got some profit of my lessons; [...]
- 1911 June, Jack London, “Cruising in the Solomons”, in The Cruise of the Snark, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 279:
- Morning found us still vainly toiling through the passage. At last, in despair, we turned tail, ran out to sea, and sailed clear round Bassakanna to our objective, Malu.
- 1945 April 3, Bruce Rae, “Okinawa: The Marines Have Landed”, in New York Times, page 1:
- Five of the enemy planes were shot down and the remainder turned tail.
- 2011 April 27, Vivienne Walt, “Have Fuel, Will Fight”, in Time:
- The men blew up two oil pipelines in eastern Libya near the rebel-held Sarir fields, before turning tail and speeding back west.
Usage notes
[edit]- Often used to suggest fearfulness, cowardliness, or unwillingness to face a challenge or a responsibility.
Translations
[edit]Translations
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