Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the feathers of the tail arranged in the shape of a fan; eurhipidurous: applied to ordinary birds (Carinatæ), in distinction from bush-tailed, an epithet of the Ratitœ
  • Having the tail exceedingly developed and complicate, as the variety of the domestic pigeon known as the fantail.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Having an expanded, or fan-shaped, tail.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • The fan-tailed peacock pictured below was the signature design of the Akstafa, a single group of Kazak weavers living southwest of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

    Carpet Bagging 2010

  • Some Caucasian groups like the Karabaghs near the southern border of modern-day Iran sold rugs to outsiders by the dozen, but only one town in the Shirvan district ever made rugs featuring fan-tailed birds, called Akstafas, by which their rarer rugs are now known.

    The Rug Market Takes Flight 2010

  • The nomadic tribes of the Caucasus often added birds to their rugs, but only the Kazaks in the Shirvan district near Tbilisi used this particular type of fan-tailed peacock to represent prosperity.

    Decoding Imagery in Oriental Rugs 2010

  • The fan-tailed peacock pictured below was the signature design of the Akstafa, a single group of Kazak weavers living southwest of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

    The Rug Market Takes Flight 2010

  • Our fair fan-tailed friend has his own gift wrapped in paper, tied with a bow and bearing a tag that reads: Merry Christmas, Fighter.

    Charlotte Safavi: A Christmas Tail 2009

  • Each wore a reddish-pink halo of algal bloom in which fan-tailed sievers of bloated mien held court, arcing and diving like pale prima donnas in a perpetual alien pax de deux.

    The Dig Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1995

  • But the fact of the rapidly increasing difficulty found in producing by ever such careful selection, any further extreme in some charge already carried very far (such as the tail of the "fan-tailed pigeon" or the crop of the "pouter"), is certainly, so far as it goes, on the side of the {117} existence of definite limits to variability.

    On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart

  • _Bulbul_ is the most common, then the fan-tailed Parus, with its coquettish airs; judging from the voice there is a species of Bucco.

    Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries William Griffith

  • A group of white fan-tailed pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about one of their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange way, with outspread wings and twitching feet.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 40, February, 1861 Various

  • The aquarium is simply an oblong glass box mounted on a teak stand, with a tracery of teak carving outlining the box, which is the home of the most gorgeous fan-tailed goldfish.

    The House in Good Taste Elsie de Wolfe

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