Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having a deeply forked tail. Used of various birds.
- adj. Resembling the tail of a swallow.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of the form of swallow's tail; having tapering or pointed skirts: applied particularly to a coat.
- In joinery, dovetailed.
- Having a long, deeply forked tail, like the barn-swallow's.
- In Greek female costume of the archaic period, noting the arrangement of the chiton or under garment, the plaits of which are so arranged that they fall in masses which resemble swallows' tails.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having a tail like that of a swallow; hence, like a swallow's tail in form; having narrow and tapering or pointed skirts.
- adj. (Carp.) United by dovetailing; dovetailed.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (especially of butterflies and birds) having a forked tail like that of a swallow
Examples
“A small, dark man, dapper and debonair, swallow-tailed and top-hatted, was waltzing about the stage with dainty, mincing steps, and in a thin little voice singing something or other about somebody or something evidently pathetic.”
“I try to think of all the Audubon birds I know and list them in my head: Painted bunting, swallow-tailed hawk, great cinereous owl, whip-poor-will, the hemlock warbler...”
““This is the painted bunting, that is the swallow-tailed hawk.””
“Scissor-tailed flycatcher, Tyrannus forficatus fomerly, Milvulus forficatus; protonym, Muscivora forficata, also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise and the swallow-tailed flycatcher, photographed at Manhattan, Kansas.”
The Guardian: Mystery bird: scissor-tailed flycatcher, Tyrannus forficatus
“John James Audubon/ Birds of America Detail of Audobon's drawing of a swallow-tailed kite John James Audubon is considered one of the greatest bird artists of all time, famous for his life-size depictions in "Birds of America" 1827-1838.”
“His images broke new ground by portraying birds in their own habitat, often in flight or in pursuit of prey, as with this swallow-tailed kite holding a snake.”
“She was bemused by this young exquisite, for Raoul sported a swallow-tailed coat of sober blue over a high-collared shirt and fawn trousers set off by braided seams.”
“It was the last day of Ascot, and the station was packed with throngs of those returning from their day at the races: men in swallow-tailed morning jackets and women in lurid pastels and headgear that resembled cakes and flower pots.”
London Theater Journal: The Cost of Everything - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com
“For example, the waved albatross (Diomedea irrorata), which is considered endemic to Espanola Island spends long periods of time at sea; the flightless cormorant (Nannopterum harrisi) is the only flightless species from its genus; the swallow-tailed gull (Creagrus furcatus); and lava gull (Larus fuliginosus) considered one of the rarest gulls in the world.”
“Bruneiyellow with two diagonal bands of white (top, almost double width) and black starting from the upper hoist side; the national emblem in red is superimposed at the center; the emblem includes a swallow-tailed flag on top of a winged column within an upturned crescent above a scroll and flanked by two upraised hands”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘swallow-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...
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