trundle-tail Obs. or arch.
Forms: 5 tryndel-, 6–8 trundle-, 6–9 trindle-, 7 trondle-, trendle-.
1. A dog with a curly tail; a low-bred dog, a cur. Also attrib.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans F iv b, Myddyng dogges. Tryndel⁓tayles, and Prikherid curris. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 29 A trundle-taile tike or shaugh or two. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. v. 872 All kinde of dogges..trindle tailes, prick-eard curres, small Ladies puppies. 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. vi. 73 Hound or Spaniell,..Or Bobtaile tight, or Trondle taile. a 1639 Webster Appius & Virg. iii. iv, Amongst curs a trendle tale. 1820 Scott Monast. xxiv, The very brutes are degenerated..our hounds are turnspits and trindle-tails. |
b. Applied contemptuously to a person.
| 1614 B. Jonson Bart. Fair ii. v, Doe you sneere, you dogs-head, you Trendle tayle! 1632 Rowley Woman Never Vexed ii. i. 18 How now my fine Trundletayles; My wodden Cosmographers. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Trundle-tail, a Wench that runs fisking up and down with a draggled Tail. |
2. (as two words) A curly tail (of a dog).
| a 1625 Fletcher Love's Cure iii. iii, Like a poor cur, clapping his trindle tail Betwixt his legs. 1651 Ogilby æsop (1665) 205 Rough with a trundle Tail, a Prick-ear'd Cur. |