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Tail vs Train - What's the difference?

tail | train |

As nouns the difference between tail and train

is that tail is while train is elongated portion or train can be (obsolete) treachery; deceit.

As a verb train is

to practice an ability.

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

    * ----

    train

    English

    (wikipedia train)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) . The verb was derived from the noun in Middle English.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Elongated portion.
  • # The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.
  • #* 1817 , (Jane Austen), Northanger Abbey :
  • They called each other by their Christian name, were always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other's train for the dance, and were not to be divided in the set [...].
  • #*
  • #* 2011 , Imogen Fox, The Guardian , 20 Apr 2011:
  • Lace sleeves, a demure neckline, a full skirt and a relatively modest train .
  • # A trail or line (of) something, especially gunpowder.
  • #* 1873 , (Charlotte Mary Yonge), Aunt Charlotte's Stories of English History for the little ones :
  • A party was sent to search, and there they found all the powder ready prepared, and, moreover, a man with a lantern, one Guy Fawkes, who had undertaken to be the one to set fire to the train of gunpowder, hoping to escape before the explosion.
  • #
  • Connected sequence of people or things.
  • # A group of people following an important figure, king etc.; a retinue, a group of retainers.
  • #* 1610 , , act 5 scene 1
  • Sir, I invite your Highness and your train  / To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest /For this one night
  • #* 2009 , (Anne Easter Smith), The King's Grace :
  • Grace was glad the citizenry did not know Katherine Gordon was in the king's train , but she was beginning to understand Henry's motive for including the pretender's wife.
  • # A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession.
  • # A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure (of) something.
  • #* 1872 , (Charles Darwin), The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals :
  • A man may be absorbed in the deepest thought, and his brow will remain smooth until he encounters some obstacle in his train of reasoning, or is interrupted by some disturbance, and then a frown passes like a shadow over his brow.
  • #* 2012 , Rory Carroll, The Guardian , 18 Jun 2012:
  • "Where was I?" he asked several times during the lunch, losing his train of thought.
  • # (military) The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege.
  • # A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence.
  • # A series of electrical pulses.
  • # A series (of) specified vehicles, originally tramcars in a mine, and later especially railway carriages, coupled together.
  • # A line of connected railway cars or carriages considered overall as a mode of transport; (as uncountable noun) rail travel.
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.
  • #* 2009 , (Hanif Kureishi), The Guardian , 24 Jan 2009:
  • This winter we thought we'd go to Venice by train , for the adventure.
  • #* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • # A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.
  • # (sex, slang) An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a woman or bottom, especially as a form of gang rape.
  • #* 1988 , X Motion Picture and Center for New Art Activities (New York, N.Y.), Bomb: Issues 26-29 , link
  • Then Swooney agreed, "Yeah, let's run a train up the fat cunt."
  • #* 2005 , Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006: Volume 2001 , link
  • “You want us to run a train on you?”
  • #* 2010 , Diesel King, A Good Time in the Hood , page 12
  • We eventually began to decide that with the endless supply of men we had there was no need to only run trains , or gangbang, the insatiables.
  • Derived terms
    * ammunition train * baggage train * freight train * goods train * it's not the whistle that pulls the train * mail train * pack train * railroad train * railway train * road train * steam train * supply train * trainiac * trainmaster * train track * vactrain * wagon train
    Descendants
    * Irish: (l) * Welsh:

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To practice an ability.
  • To teach and form by practice; to educate; to exercise with discipline.
  • * Dryden
  • The warrior horse here bred he's taught to train .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners.}}
  • To improve one's fitness.
  • To proceed in sequence.
  • To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction.
  • (horticulture) To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending.
  • * Jeffrey
  • He trained the young branches to the right hand or to the left.
  • (mining) To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.
  • (video games) To create a trainer for; to apply cheats to (a game).
  • * 2000 , "Sensei David O.E. Mohr - Lord Ronin from Q-Link", WTB:"The Last V-8" C128 game -name correction'' (on newsgroup ''comp.sys.cbm )
  • I got a twix on the 128 version being fixed and trained by Mad Max at M2K BBS 208-587-7636 in Mountain Home Idaho. He fixes many games and puts them on his board. One of my sources for games and utils.
  • (obsolete) To draw along; to trail; to drag.
  • * Milton
  • In hollow cube / Training his devilish enginery.
  • (obsolete) To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.
  • * Shakespeare
  • If but a dozen French / Were there in arms, they would be as a call / To train ten thousand English to their side.
  • * Shakespeare
  • O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note.
  • * Ford
  • This feast, I'll gage my life, / Is but a plot to train you to your ruin.
    Derived terms
    * trainer * training * weight-train * weight training

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) traine, (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Treachery; deceit.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.3:
  • In the meane time, through that false Ladies traine / He was surprisd, and buried under beare, / Ne ever to his worke returnd againe [...].
  • (obsolete) A trick or stratagem.
  • (obsolete) A trap for animals; a snare.
  • (obsolete) A lure; a decoy.