bangtail

English

Alternative forms

bang tail, bang-tail

Etymology

From bang +‎ tail. The primary meaning refers to the sense bang (“fringe of hair cut across the forehead”).

Pronunciation

Audio (General Australian): (file)

Noun

bangtail (plural bangtails)

The tail of a horse or cow, allowed to grow out and then trimmed horizontally so as to form a tassel; a horse or cow having such a tail.
- 1851, Turning Out a Bagman: A Legend of Brighton Downs, in Charles Dickens, William Harrison Ainsworth, Albert Smith Bentley's Miscellany, Volume XXIX, page 259,
  Two lean, ewe-necked, clipt chestnuts, tucked up in the ribs, with hard work and bad feeding, but with such flowing bang-tails as at once stamped them in the eyes of our friends as “ out-and-out ” thorough-breds—were led up and down by John. […] The bang-tails, no doubt, supposing themselves out for their usual “airing,” put themselves in the regular side-long position, and struck at once into a sort of hectic canter ; a particular movement, peculiar to Brighton bang-tails, and adapted to the most innocent equestrian.
- 1903, Tom Collins (Joseph Furphy), Such Is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, 2004, page 68,
  "And did you see a dark chestnut horse; bang tail; star and snip; white hind feet; saddle and bridle on?" I asked.
- 1913, John Galsworthy, The Dark Flower‎^[1], page 244:
  Lennan held the black horse — a bizarre little beast, all fire and whipcord, with a skin like satin, liquid eyes, very straight hocks, and a thin bangtail reaching down to them.
- 2005, Cynthia Queen, The Major's Renegade‎^[2], page 127:
  Once we get the herd we can set up relays to keep the bangtails movin' as we go.
(US) A racehorse.
- 1934, Stanley Walker, City Editor, published 1999, page 99:
  “Eddie!” whinnied Daley, the distraught worshipper of the bang-tails. “Eddie! Phar Lap is dead!”
- 1937, The American Magazine, volume 124, page 52:
  Americans bet $5,000,000,000 a year on the galloping bangtails.
- 1983 March, Cincinnati Magazine, page 43:
  If you happen to be out on the far east side between April 23 and September 5, with $10 burning a hole in your pocket, hie yourself out to River Downs Race Track, 6301 Kellogg Avenue, and bet on the bangtails.
- 2018, Kasey Michaels, The Promise:
  I was ridin' the horses then, you understand, and maybe known to take a flutter or two on the bangtails while I was about it.
(slang) A prostitute.
(marketing) An envelope with a perforated flap on which promotional material is printed; the flap on such an envelope.

Verb

bangtail (third-person singular simple present bangtails, present participle bangtailing, simple past and past participle bangtailed)

To shear off the hair horizontally at the end of a cow or horse's tail.

Derived terms

bangtail muster

Anagrams

ablating