SWALLOW-TAILED • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Swallow-tailed

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/swˈɑloʊ-teɪld/ Listen

adjective

Swallow-tailed adj.

Having a tail like that of a swallow; hence, like a swallow's tail in form; having narrow and tapering or pointed skirts; as, a swallow-tailed coat.

(Carp.) United by dovetailing; dovetailed.

Swallow-tailed duck (Zool.), the old squaw.

Swallow-tailed gull (Zool.), an Arctic gull (Xema furcata), which has a deeply forked tail.

Swallow-tailed hawk or Swallow-tailed kite (Zool.), the fork-tailed kite.

Swallow-tailed moth (Zool.), a European moth (Urapteryx sambucaria) having tail-like lobes on the hind wings.

See images of 'Swallow-tailed'

Etymology of 'Swallow-tailed'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Swallow-tailed" Quotes from Famous Books

... oars used by the caique-jees are of quite a peculiar shape, the oar-shaft immediately next the hand-hold swells into a bulbous affair for the next eighteen inches, which is at least four times the circumference of the remainder, and the end of the oarblade is for some reason made swallow-tailed. The object of the enlarged portion, which of course comes inside the rowlocks, appears to be the double purpose of balancing the weight of the longer portion outside, and also for preventing the oar at all times from escaping ...

— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens

... seemed prolonged into his very chest. La Rivodiere cast despairing glances at Lange, poor Pomponet strove to get to his bride, and all the blonde wigs and black collars of the conspirators were mixed amid the strange poke bonnets of the ladies, and the long swallow-tailed coats, reaching almost to the ground, flapped in and out of the legs of the female soldiers. Kate smiled feebly and drank in the music of the waltz. It was played over again; like a caged canary's song it haunted Clairette's orange-blossoms; like the voluptuous thrill ...

— A Mummer's Wife • George Moore

... butterflies, there are certain groups of the great genus Papilio—the true swallow-tailed butterflies—which have all the characteristics of uneatable insects. They have a special coloration, usually red and black (at least in the females), they fly slowly, they are very abundant, and they possess a peculiar odour somewhat like that of the Heliconidae. One of these groups is ...

— Darwinism (1889) • Alfred Russel Wallace

... costumes in the windows. He was a little fellow, not much larger than a boy of ten. His cheeks were as red as roses, and he had on a long curling wig as white as snow. He wore a suit of crimson velvet knee-breeches, and a little swallow-tailed coat with beautiful golden buttons. Deep lace ruffles fell over his slender white hands, and he wore elegant knee-buckles of glittering stones. He sat on a high stool behind his counter and served his customers ...

— The Pot of Gold - And Other Stories • Mary E. Wilkins

... or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection. ...

— Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection - A Series of Essays • Alfred Russel Wallace

More quotes...