rattail

See also: rat-tail

English

A species of rattail fish

A man with a rattail haircut

Alternative forms

• rat-tail

Etymology

rat +‎ tail: all of the nonliteral senses come from something else's fancied resemblance to the tail of a rat.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ˈrăt-ˌtāl, IPA^(key): /ˈɹæt.teɪl/

Noun

rattail (plural rattails)

2. Any of the large dark-colored deep-sea fish of the Macrouridae family of ray-finned fish.

   Synonyms: grenadier, macrourid, whiptail

3. A fish, a California chimera (Hydrolagus colliei, syn. Chimaera colliei).
5. A hairstyle characterized by a long lock of tail-like hair dangling from the back of the head; the dangling lock itself.
7. A type of file (cutting tool) with a round cross section and usually also a taper toward the distal end.

   Synonym: rat-tail file

8. (slang) A towel that has been tightly twisted along the diagonal to make a rudimentary whip with a towel corner at the tip, typically used in juvenile pranks.
9. An excrescence growing from the pastern to the middle of the shank of a horse.

Hypernyms

• tail (structural)

Derived terms

• rattail cactus
• rattail crassula
• rattail radish

 

Translations

fish

• French: queue de rat (fr) f, grenadier (fr) m
• German: Rattenschwanz (de) m, Grenadierfische f
• Russian: макру́рус (ru) m (makrúrus)
• Spanish: cola de rata f, granadero m

hair

• Dutch: rattenstaart (nl) m
• French: queue-de-rat (fr) f
• German: Rattenschwanz (de) m
• Italian: codino (it) m
• Polish: mysi ogonek (pl)
• Spanish: cola de rata f

See also

• (hairstyle): mullet

Further reading

• rattail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Macrouridae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Macrouridae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons