ˈplough-tail, ˈplow-
The rear or handles of a plough. Symbolically, the following of the plough, the place of the farm-labourer, farm-labour; as in at, to, from the plough-tail. Also attrib.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §3 The plough-tayle is that the husbande holdeth in his hande. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa iv. 230 They forsooke their generall, and returned home to the plough-taile. 1697 Dryden Virg. (1721) I. Ess. Georg. 207 Something of a rustick Majesty, like that of a Roman Dictator at the Plow-Tail. 1712 Budgell Spect. No. 307 ¶16 A Man..who might have done his Country excellent Service at a Plough-tail. 17.. Burns MS. presented to Mr. Riddel Wks. (1833) 83/2 He..was bred at a plough-tail. 1831 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 32 The men were all from the ploughtail. 1877 R. C. Jebb Prim. Grk. Lit. i. ii. 41 How should the axle-tree of a waggon be made, and what is the best wood for a plough-tail or a pole? 1912 Chamber's Jrnl. Sept. 564/1 No doubt the chie thought he cut a dash among the plough-tail lads. |