Ail vs Tail - What's the difference?
ail | tail |
(obsolete) Painful; troublesome.
To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)
* Bible, Genesis xxi. 17
* 2011 , "Connubial bliss in America", The Economist :
To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.
* Richardson
(anatomy) The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus.
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:
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.
The buttocks or backside.
* 1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Courte :
*, I.49:
(slang) The male member of a person or animal.
(slang, uncountable) Sexual intercourse.
(kayaking) The stern; the back of the kayak.
The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
* Bible, Deuteronomy xxviii. 13:
A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
* (rfdate), Walter Scott:
(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.
To follow and observe surreptitiously.
(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.
To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
* Fuller
To pull or draw by the tail.
(legal) Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
(legal) Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.
In transitive terms the difference between ail and tail
is that ail is to cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions. while tail is to follow and observe surreptitiously.ail
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .Adjective
(en-adj)Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Have some chicken soup. It's good for what ails you.
- What aileth thee, Hagar?
- Not content with having in 1996 put a Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the statue book, Congress has now begun to hold hearings on a Respect for Marriage Act. Defended, respected: what could possibly ail marriage in America?
- When he ails ever so little he is so peevish.
Quotations
* (English Citations of "ail")Etymology 3
From (etyl) .Anagrams
* * ----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)- Most primates have a tail and fangs.
- Doretus writes a great praise of the distilled waters of those tails that hang on willow trees.
- A sequence is said to be ''frequently '' if every tail of the sequence contains .
- 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.
- They were wont to wipe their tailes .
- After the burly macho nudists' polar bear dip, their tails''' were spectacularly shrunk, so they looked like an immature kid's innocent '''tail .
- I'm gonna get me some tail tonight.
- The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail .
- "Ah," said he, "if you saw but the chief with his tail on."
Synonyms
* ass, poontang, poon, tang, pussy, punaniDerived 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 * yellowtailSee also
* caudalVerb
(en verb)- Tail that car!
- This vessel tails downstream.
- Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds, wherewith he was tailed , continued uncancelled.
- (Hudibras)
Etymology 2
From (etyl), probably from a shortened form of entail .Adjective
- estate tail
Noun
(en noun)- tail male — limitation to male heirs
- in tail — subject to such a limitation