cow-tail
† 1. The bushy tail of the Tibetan Yak used as a whisk; = chowry. Obs.
| 1671 tr. Bernier's Voy. 84 (Y.) These Elephants have then also..certain Cow-tails..hanging at their Ears like great Mustachoes. 1774 W. Hastings in Markham Tibet (1876) 8 Cattle which bear what are called cowtails. 1827 [see chowry]. 1840 H. H. Wilson Vish{nacu}u-pará{nacu}a (1868) IV. 276 Yaśodá..waved over him a cow-tail brush. |
2. The coarsest grade of wool, sheared from the sheep's hind legs.
| 1884 W. S. B. Maclaren Spinning 16 The coarsest part of the [sheep's] wool is known as breach, or britch, and even when very strong, as cow-tail. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. iii. 66 Among wool-trade expressions apparently original to Australia are cowtail and say-cast, the coarsest hair at the tail end of a fleece. |