Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a tail with ringlike markings.
  • adjective Having a tail that curls to form a ring.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the tail ringed with alternating colors, as a mammal; having an annulated tail: as, the ring-tailed cat, the bassaris; the ring-tailed lemur, Lemur catta. See cuts under bassaris and racoon.
  • Having the tail-feathers cross-barred with different colors, as a bird: as, the ring-tailed eagle, the golden eagle, Aquila chrysaëtos, in immature plumage (see cut under eagle); the ring-tailed marlin, the Hudsonian godwit, Limosa hæmastica.

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Having the tail crossed by conspicuous bands of color.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the cacomixle.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) a young golden eagle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective having a tail marked with differently colored rings
  • adjective carrying its flexible tail in a circular or spiraling form

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ring + the past participle of to tail

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Examples

  • Her father and her mother were the grasshopper and the ring-tailed cat.

    CHAPTER X 2010

  • The mother of all women had to be a cat, a little, wizened, sad-faced, shrewd ring-tailed cat.

    CHAPTER X 2010

  • The fault is with the grasshopper and the ring-tailed cat.

    CHAPTER X 2010

  • There are ring-tailed lemurs that waft their tails around to speak a complex “language” of multiple scents to communicate aggression, receptiveness to mating, and much more.

    SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011

  • The coyote is very wise, the moon is very old; but who ever heard much of anything of credit to the grasshopper and the ring-tailed cat?

    CHAPTER X 2010

  • Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A ring-tailed lemur rested on a tree branch at the Singapore Zoo in Singapore on March 26.

    Asia in Photos 2010

  • Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A ring-tailed lemur rested on a tree branch at the Singapore Zoo in Singapore on March 26.

    Asia in Photos 2010

  • Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A ring-tailed lemur rested on a tree branch at the Singapore Zoo in Singapore on March 26.

    Asia in Photos 2010

  • Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A ring-tailed lemur rested on a tree branch at the Singapore Zoo in Singapore on March 26.

    Asia in Photos 2010

  • Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A ring-tailed lemur rested on a tree branch at the Singapore Zoo in Singapore on March 26.

    Asia in Photos 2010

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