Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having the tail cocked or tilted up: as, the cocktailed flycatcher, Alectrurus tricolor.
- Said of a horse having the tail docked so that it points obliquely upward like the tail of a cock.
Examples
“Because these animals tended not to be thoroughbreds, cock-tailed came to denote horses of mixed pedigree.”
“* The cock-tailed beetle has earned this name in the West of”
“And very often Tom caught them just as they touched the water; and caught the alder-flies, and the caperers, and the cock-tailed duns and spinners, yellow, and brown, and claret, and gray, and gave them to his friends the trout.”
“Here were his stables, where he kept such horses as were not actually in the trainer's hands -- and a large assortment of aged hunters, celebrated timber-jumpers, brood mares, thoroughbred fillies, cock-tailed colts, and promising foals.”
“And very often Tom caught them just as they touched the water; and caught the alder-flies, and the caperers, and the cock-tailed duns and spinners, yellow, and brown, and claret, and grey, and gave them to his friends the trout.”
“I did when I was a little shaver, and wore cock-tailed petticoats -- all bare legs and bustle -- 'a Highland lad my love was born '; that style of thing, rather, you know; never believed 'em, though: wasn't to be done even then; eh?”
“We had another, and another just such a race for three or four evenings together, and they got an English _cock-tailed nag_, and set _him_ to the business, as they said _he was trained to it_; but I don't recollect his making a more brilliant figure than his painted and chalked neighbours of the Continent.”
“Words similar to cockviii can be found in numerous Germanic and Romance languages, with the Late Latin cognate being coccus, itself a poetic word that imitates the cocococo morning call of the barnyard alpha male.ix From the cock-tailed horse came America’s shortened cocktail, which for a time referred not only to a drink whose ingredients were of mixed provenance but also to a man of uncertain breeding or moral character.”
“It was not to be expected that three boys fresh from school could pass that falling stream without leaping from rock to rock, and penetrating a hundred yards inland, to see if we could find a dipper's nest, for one of the little cock-tailed blackbirds gave us a glimpse of his white collar as he dropped upon a stone, and then walked into a pool, in whose clear depths we could see him scudding about after the insects at the bottom, and seeming to fly through the water as he beat his little rounded wings using them as a fish does fins.”
“Here were his stables, where he kept such horses as were not actually in the trainer’s hands and a large assortment of aged hunters, celebrated timber-jumpers, brood mares, thoroughbred fillies, cock-tailed colts, and promising foals.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cock-tailed’.
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Bird Wirds: Adjectives
Adjectives used in actual (non-taxonomic) bird names, past and present.
roseate, glossy, whooping, neotropic, pelagic, ferruginous, crested, whiskered, marbled, tufted, horned, eared and 818 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cock-tailed.
reesetee What a Tyrant. Feb 6, 2009