▪ I. wagtail, n.
(ˈwægteɪl)
[f. wag v. + tail n.1 Cf. prec. and F. hochequeue.]
1. a. A small bird belonging to one of the species of the genus Motacilla or the family Motacillidæ, so called from the continual characteristic wagging motion of the tail. In Great Britain chiefly applied to M. lugubris, ‘the Pied Wagtail of authors’ (Newton), called also water wagtail.
| 1510 Stanbridge Vocabula (W. de W.) C vj, Motatula, a wag tayle. a 1529 Skelton P. Sparowe 392 The goldfynche, the wagtayle. c 1550 Lloyd Treas. Health xxxviii. (Copland) N vij, A special remedy [for the stone] after Auicen, is a wagtayle. 1604 [? Chettle] Wit of Woman C 2, I..had my spirit as full of life as a wagtayle, but now the case is altered. 1658 Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. 946 All those Birds called Wagtails (if I am not deceived) live upon Flies. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1768) IV. 24, I always illustrated my Eagleship..by disdaining to make a stoop at wrens, phyl-tits, and wag-tails. 1773 G. White Selborne, To Pennant 9 Nov., Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. 1876 Smiles Scotch Natur. xiii. (ed. 4) 260 The melancholy note of the Wagtail. |
b. With qualifying words, indicating native country, colour, habits, etc.
Chiefly species of Motacilla, or species formerly referred to that genus.
| 1668 Charleton Onomast. 90 Motacilla Flava, the Yellow wagtail. a 1672 Willughby Ornith. ii. xvii. (1676) 172 Motacilla cinerea... The grey Wagtail. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. ii. xvii. 237 The white Wagtail. 1783 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds II. ii. 396–402 [Mentions Collared, Pied, Indian, Yellow, Yellow-headed, Cape or African Wagtail]. 1802 G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. s.v., Wagtail, Grey... Provincial. Winter Wagtail. Ibid., Wagtail, Yellow... Provincial. Spring, or Summer Wagtail. 1863 Baring-Gould Iceland 332 A coppice of birch, among which darted the redwing and white wagtail. 1884 Coues Key N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2) 284 Motacilla ocularis. Siberian Wagtail. 1896 Newton Dict. Birds 1018 The so-called Grey Wagtail of Britain. |
2. Applied to other birds. a. U.S. One of the water-thrushes, Seiurus nævius or S. motacilla (Cent. Dict. 1891).
| 1868 J. Burroughs Wake-robin viii. (1884) 296 The two species of water-thrush or wagtails, and the oven-bird or wood-wagtail. |
b. Austral. The black-and-white fantail, Rhipidura tricolor, also called the wagtail flycatcher (Morris Austral English, 1898). c. dial. The dunlin (Montagu Ornith. Dict., 1802).
† 3. transf. a. A familiar or contemptuous epithet or form of address applied to a man or young woman. Obs.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. ii. 73 This ancient Ruffian Sir, whose life I haue spar'd at sute of his gray-beard... Spare my gray⁓beard, you wagtaile? 1607 Middleton Mich. Term iii. 211 Wagtail, salute them all; they are friends. 1656 W. Dugard tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. 193 A wagtail or busibody desiring to know many things beyond measure, and being unable to bee satisfied with enquiries. 1732 Fielding Debauchees i. i, Good morrow, my little wagtail—my grass⁓hopper, my butterfly. 1783 O'Keeffe Birth-Day 30 To dangle, frisk, and hop about like an impertinent wag-tail as you are. |
† b. esp. A contemptuous term for a profligate or inconstant woman; hence, a harlot, courtesan.
Common in the 17th c.
| 1592 Lyly Midas i. i, If therefore thou make not thy mistress a goldfinch, thou mayst chance to find her a wagtaile. 1608 Middleton Trick to Catch Old One ii. i. 84 If men be wags, are there not women wagtails? 1635 Shirley Traitor ii. i, Join to make her Supple and pliant for the Duke: I hope We are not the first have been advanced by a wagtail. 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. Prognost. v. 237 Hedge-whores, Wagtails, Cockatrices, Whipsters. 1710 Brit. Apollo III. No. 25. 3/2 Like Paris with his Gleek of Wagtails on Ida. |
4. An artificial minnow used in trout-fishing.
| 1906 Macm. Mag. Nov. 26 Shortly after there was a pull at the rod from which the wagtail was fishing. |
5. Joinery. A parting-strip (see parting vbl. n. 7 b) used in the construction of a sash window.
| 1940 in Chambers's Techn. Dict. 1950 M. T. Telling Carpentry & Joinery 43 To prevent this happening a long thin sliver of wood called a parting slip or wagtail is placed between them [sc. the weights] inside the box. |
6. Comb., as wagtail-family, wagtail-minnow; wag-tail dance = waggle dance s.v. waggle n. 2; wagtail flycatcher = 2 b; wagtail kite nonce-use, a toy kite with a wagging or swinging tail; wagtail-warbler = 2 a.
| 1882 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. No. iii. 504 Of the Wagtail family, the Pied Wagtail, and the Grey and Yellow Wagtail, visited the Lake. 1884 Coues Key N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2) 309 Siurus nævius. Wag-tail Warbler. Ibid., Siurus motacilla. Large-billed Wagtail Warbler. 1906 Macm. Mag. Nov. 25 A green and silver wagtail minnow. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 495 Ragged barefoot newsboys jogging a wagtail kite. 1949 C. G. Butler Honeybee viii. 120 Von Frisch described two dances, a round-dance and a wag-tail dance. 1973 Wag-tail dance [see round a. 5 a]. |
▪ II. † ˈwagtail, v. Obs.
[f. wagtail n.]
intr. To flutter.
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. i. Tropheis 137 Even as a paire of busie chattering Pies..feel a chill fear, From bush to bush, wag-tayling here and there. c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 118 From bush to bush they in a panick feare, Wagtayling goe. |