Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small carnivorous raccoonlike mammal (Bassariscus astutus) of the southwest United States, having grayish or brownish fur and a black-banded tail.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A ring-tailed bird of prey: especially, the female or young male harrier, Circus cyaneus.
- n. A small quadrilateral sail, set on a small mast on a ship's taffrail; also, a studdingsail set upon the gaff of a fore-and-aft sail. Also called ringsail.
Wiktionary
- n. A ring-tailed animal, notably:
- n. nautical A ringsail.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A bird having a distinct band of color across the tail, as the hen harrier.
- n. (Naut.) A light sail set abaft and beyong the leech of a boom-and-gaff sail; -- called also
ringsail .
WordNet 3.0
- n. North American raccoon
- n. an immature golden eagle
- n. monkey of Central America and South America having thick hair on the head that resembles a monk's cowl
- n. raccoon-like omnivorous mammal of Mexico and the southwestern United States having a long bushy tail with black and white rings
Etymologies
- ring + tail (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The sails along the centre line of the ship are the fore-and-aft sails; these are the triangular jibs, staysails and trysails, and the trapezoidal spanker we have already mentioned, which sometimes has a gaff topsail over it and a "ringtail" behind it, as shown in our figure.”
“It consisted of an unclean and vicious-looking man in tramp's clothing, grinding an offensive hand-organ and domineering over a poor little terrorized "ringtail" monkey.”
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals A Book of Personal Observations
“Actually, I'm wondering if it wasn't a ringtail, native to California.”
“Recent media reports of the extinction of the lemuroid ringtail possum were "confused," the species is still around.”
“The ringtail and raccoon exchanged a distinctly hesitant look before following.”
“His size made him prominent among the sword - and ax-armed ringtail cats and raccoons who comprised the majority of the gang.”
“A ringtail and the bear grabbed him under the arms and hustled him away toward the densest cluster of trees while the rest of the gang scattered in every direction.”
“The bandicoot and ringtail rushed out to inform their companions of what had transpired within.”
“Two of Wurragarr's people, an ax-wielding bandicoot and a sword-armed ringtail, stood entranced in the far doorway.”
“Uh-uh, " admitted the ringtail, wondering simultaneously if he was being set up.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ringtail’.
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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Australasian mammals
Australasian mammals, monotremes, anteater, duckbill, echidna, giant anteater, ornithorhynchus, platypus, porcupine, water mole, carnivorous marsu..., banded anteater and 220 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ringtail.
chained_bear Also means some terribly nautical thing. See usage note on passaree. Feb 24, 2008