Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Said of a horse having the tail docked so that it points obliquely upward like the tail of a cock.
  • Having the tail cocked or tilted up: as, the cocktailed flycatcher, Alectrurus tricolor.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Because these animals tended not to be thoroughbreds, cock-tailed came to denote horses of mixed pedigree.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • Because these animals tended not to be thoroughbreds, cock-tailed came to denote horses of mixed pedigree.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • 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.

    The Water Babies 2007

  • * The cock-tailed beetle has earned this name in the West of

    Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004

  • 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.

    Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2 Charles Herbert Sylvester

  • * The cock-tailed beetle has earned this name in the West of

    Lorna Doone; a Romance of Exmoor 1862

  • 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.

    The Kellys and the O'Kellys Anthony Trollope 1848

  • 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.

    The Water-Babies A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby Charles Kingsley 1847

  • 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.

    The Water-Babies Charles Kingsley 1847

  • 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?

    Frank Fairlegh Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil Frank E. Smedley 1835

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