Tail vs Shadow - What's the difference?
tail | shadow | Related terms |
(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.
A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1
, passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
Relative darkness, especially as caused by the interruption of light; gloom, obscurity.
* Denham
* Spenser
(obsolete) A reflected image, as in a mirror or in water.
That which looms as though a shadow.
*
A small degree; a shade.
* Bible, James i. 17
An imperfect and faint representation.
* Bible, Hebrews x. 1
* Milton
One who secretly or furtively follows another.
* Milton
A type of lettering form of word processors that makes a cubic effect.
An influence, especially a pervasive or a negative one.
*
A spirit; a ghost; a shade.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete, Latinism) An uninvited guest accompanying one who was invited.
To block light or radio transmission.
(espionage) To secretly or discreetly track or follow another, to keep under surveillance.
To accompany a professional during the working day, so as to learn about an occupation one intends to take up.
(programming) To make an identifier, usually a variable, inaccessible by declaring another of the same name within the scope of the first.
(computing) To apply the shadowing process to (the contents of ROM).
As nouns the difference between tail and shadow
is that tail is the caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus while shadow is a dark projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.As verbs the difference between tail and shadow
is that tail is to follow and observe surreptitiously while shadow is to block light or radio transmission.As an adjective tail
is limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.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
Anagrams
* ----shadow
English
(wikipedia shadow)Noun
(en noun)- Night's sable shadows from the ocean rise.
- In secret shadow from the sunny ray, / On a sweet bed of lilies softly laid.
- (Shakespeare)
- Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow' cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose ' shadow falls over us all.
- no variableness, neither shadow of turning
- He came back from war the shadow of a man.
- the law having a shadow of good things to come
- [types] and shadows of that destined seed
- Sin and her shadow Death
- Hence, horrible shadow !
- (Nares)
Usage notes
* A person (or object) is said to "cast", "have", or "throw" a shadow if that shadow is caused by the person (either literally, by eclipsing a light source, or figuratively). The shadow may then be described as the shadow "cast" or "thrown" by the person, or as the shadow "of" the person, or simply as the person's shadow.Derived terms
* backshadowing * foreshadowing * rain shadow * shadow acting * shadow boxing * shadow cabinet * shadow government * shadow minister * shadow play * shadow price * sideshadowing * unshadowVerb
(en verb)- Looks like that cloud's going to shadow us.
