What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Limb vs Tail - What's the difference?

limb | tail | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between limb and tail

is that limb is a major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing) while tail is the caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus.

As verbs the difference between limb and tail

is that limb is to remove the limbs from an animal or tree while tail is to follow and observe surreptitiously.

As an adjective tail is

limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.

limb

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) lim, from (etyl) . The silent -b began to appear in the late 1500s.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).
  • *
  • *:Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, withon one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs .
  • A branch of a tree.
  • (lb) The part of the bow, from the handle to the tip.
  • (lb) The border or upper spreading part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal; blade.
  • (lb) The border or edge of the disk of a heavenly body, especially of the sun or moon.
  • The graduated margin of an arc or circle in an instrument for measuring angles.
  • An elementary piece of the mechanism of a lock.
  • A thing or person regarded as a part or member of, or attachment to, something else.
  • *Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
  • *:That little limb of the devil has cheated the gallows.
  • Derived terms
    * go out on a limb

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To remove the limbs from an animal or tree.
  • They limbed the felled trees before cutting them into logs.
  • To supply with limbs.
  • * , Walden :
  • Man was not made so large limbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space such as fitted him.
    (Milton)
    Synonyms
    * delimb

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) limbus , "border".

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (astronomy) The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.
  • solar limb
  • (on a measuring instrument) The graduated edge of a circle or arc.
  • See also

    {{ picdic , image=Human body features-nb.svg , detail1= }}

    tail

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) . In some senses, apparently by a generalization of the usual opposition between head'' and ''tail .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (anatomy) The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus.
  • Most primates have a tail and fangs.
  • The tail-end of an object, e.g. the rear of an aircraft's fuselage, containing the tailfin.
  • An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails.
  • * (rfdate), Harvey:
  • Doretus writes a great praise of the distilled waters of those tails that hang on willow trees.
  • The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
  • Specifically, the visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
  • The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
  • (statistics) The part of a distribution most distant from the mode; as , a long tail.
  • One who surreptitiously follows another.
  • (cricket) The last four or five batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers.
  • (typography) The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g'', ''q'' or ''y .
  • (chiefly, in the plural) The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse.
  • (mathematics) All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on.
  • A sequence (a_n) is said to be ''frequently 0'' if every tail of the sequence contains 0.
  • The buttocks or backside.
  • * 1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Courte :
  • By Goddis sydes, syns I her thyder broughte, / She hath gote me more money with her tayle / Than hath some shyppe that into Bordews sayle.
  • *, I.49:
  • They were wont to wipe their tailes .
  • (slang) The male member of a person or animal.
  • After the burly macho nudists' polar bear dip, their tails''' were spectacularly shrunk, so they looked like an immature kid's innocent '''tail .
  • (slang, uncountable) Sexual intercourse.
  • I'm gonna get me some tail tonight.
  • (kayaking) The stern; the back of the kayak.
  • The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxviii. 13:
  • The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail .
  • A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
  • * (rfdate), Walter Scott:
  • "Ah," said he, "if you saw but the chief with his tail on."
  • (anatomy) The distal tendon of a muscle.
  • A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style.
  • (surgery) A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing.
  • One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
  • (nautical) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
  • (music) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
  • (mining) A tailing.
  • (architecture) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile.
  • Synonyms

    * ass, poontang, poon, tang, pussy, punani

    Derived terms

    * cat-o'-nine-tails * chase one's tail * coattail * cocktail * have the world by the tail * rattail * shirttail * tailback * tailcoat * tail covert * tail-end * tail feather * tail fin * tailgate * tail lamp * tail light * tail-off * tailpiece * tailpipe * tailplane * tail-race * tail-skid * tailspin * tailstock * tailwheel * tailwind * turn tail * wagtail * whitetail * yellowtail

    See also

    * caudal

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To follow and observe surreptitiously.
  • Tail that car!
  • (architecture) To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in'' or ''into
  • (nautical) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor.
  • This vessel tails downstream.
  • To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
  • * Fuller
  • Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds, wherewith he was tailed , continued uncancelled.
  • To pull or draw by the tail.
  • (Hudibras)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), probably from a shortened form of entail .

    Adjective

  • (legal) Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
  • estate tail

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (legal) Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.
  • tail male — limitation to male heirs
    in tail — subject to such a limitation

    Anagrams

    * ----