▪ I. tailing, vbl. n.1
(ˈteɪlɪŋ)
[f. tail v.1 + -ing1.]
1. The action of tail v.1, in its various senses.
| 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 267 You must Cement pieces to the ends of your bricks for tailing, or to make them longer. 1781 P. Beckford Hunting (1802) 70 note, The tailing of them [hounds' ears] is usually done before they are put out. 1829 Nat. Philos. I. Hydraulics iii. 26 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.) The tailing of mill-streams only occurs in the winter seasons, or at times when there is a profusion of water. 1840 Hood Up Rhine 44 Short as the course was, it led to a great deal of what the turfmen call tailing. 1848 H. W. Haygarth Recoll. Bush Life Australia vi. 56 When cattle are first brought to a new country they are subjected to a process called ‘tailing’, which consists in watching them with horsemen by day, and driving them into their enclosures every night. 1854 Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc., Chem. 494 Mercury, holding but a slight portion of any impurity, dissolved, loses its property of cohering into globular drops.., and assumes the..appearance designated by the..term tailing, that is to say each..aggregation is..an irregularly elongated bar or tail. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. iv. 86 They will not get up again in the race,..And the rest of them, what a ‘tailing off!’ 1860 Merc. Marine Mag. VII. 327 Moored in 6 fathoms..clear from tailing into shoal water. |
2. pl. A name for the inferior qualities, leavings, or residue of any product; foots, bottoms.
a. Grain or flour of inferior quality; tail grain, etc.
b. Mining. The residuum after most of the valuable ore has been extracted.
c. A decomposed outcrop of a vein or bed.
d. Tanning: see
quot. e. General.
| a. 1764 Museum Rust. III. xii. 40, I supposed..that they would go to the tailing, or off-fall corn. 1846 Osborne Times 24 Aug., For a bushel of best wheat they pay 7s., for first tailings they pay 6s. for second tailings 5s. the bushel. 1883 Harper's Mag. June 76/2 All that is left—no longer wheat—is divided into ‘middlings’ and ‘tailings’. |
| b. 1864 Westgarth Colony Victoria xi. 222 His people were content with ‘tailings’, and places abandoned by the colonists. 1874 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 20 In the river-beds..are large accumulations of ‘tailings’, rich in gold, which escaped under the primitive processes of washing formerly in use. 1901 Scotsman 3 Apr. 6/7, 1570 tons of tailings produced by cyanide process yielded 138 ozs. |
| c. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Blossom, the oxidized or decomposed outcrop of a vein or coal-bed, more frequently the latter... Called..tailing. |
| d. 1885 C. T. Davis Manuf. Leather x. (1897) 174 In one of these [methods] the tanning⁓liquor which has been in use for some time, is made use of under the name of ‘tailings’, or sour liquor. |
| e. 1889 Daily News 28 Feb. 7/2 We fancy that out of the rejected mass of papers there are very few ‘tailings’ worth sifting. |
3. a. The end or latter part:
cf. tail n.1 4.
| 1646 J. Temple Irish Rebell. ii. 53, I shall hope to get the rest of my tailing together, and make such further provision of..materialls as may enable mee to goe through with the same. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas (1897) 30 Good Lord, they slipped behind us In the tailing of our wake! |
† b. spec. = tail n.1 4 g.
Obs.| 1684 I. Mather Remark. Provid. (1856) 43 The vessel was driven on the tailings of a ledge of rocks, where the sea broke violently. |
c. Arch. See
quot.:
cf. tail n.1 4 i.
| 1842 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Tailing, the part of a projecting stone or brick inserted in a wall. 1856 S. C. Brees Gloss. Terms s.v., The stone steps of a staircase have a tailing of about 9 inches, in order to support them. |
d. Surg. = tail n.1 4 j.
rare.
4. In calico-printing: A fault of impression, in which the colours are blurred: see
tail v.
1 18.
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
tailing-assay,
tailing-barley,
tailing-corn,
tailing ground,
tailing-heap,
tailing pile,
tailing-sand,
tailing-wheat,
tailing yard;
tailings-man,
tailing-mill;
tailing-mob, a herd of cattle regularly tailed or herded;
tailing-rope,
Naut. = tail-rope 2 a.
| 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 106 Yielding..a little over $7.15 per ton, exclusive of their *tailing-assay of $3.76 per ton. |
| 1747 Gentl. Mag. 311 The *tailing corn may soon be cleaned. c 1830 Glouc. Farm Rep. 29 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, Their food..in winter [is] raw potatoes, with tailing corn, whey, and skimmed milk. |
| 1878 E. S. Elwell Boy Colonists 67 He had caught sight of a native hanging about the ‘*tailing-ground’. |
| 1899 Daily News 13 Oct. 3/1 The immense *tailing heaps thrown up by the various companies have proved an excellent means of defence, forming earthworks which command the town [Kimberley] from every side. |
| 1885 Mrs. C. Praed Head Station 266 The beasts were..made to join what was called the ‘*tailing mob’, or those which had been constantly herded. |
| 1897 ‘Mark Twain’ Following Equator lxviii. 687 The gold fields of the world now deliver up to fifty millions dollars' worth of gold per year which would have gone into the *tailing-pile under the former conditions. 1934 I. W. Hutchison North to Rime-Ringed Sun vi. 54 Across the entrance of the valley..stretched the heaped ‘tailing-piles’, tippings of the huge gold-dredges. |
| 1495 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 197 *Taylyng Ropes for the Mayne sayle..vj; Crane lynes for the Mayne Toppe..j. |
| 1890 Goldf. Victoria 21 Recent assays of the *tailing sand. |
| 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 40 The remainder comprising 9 trammers, 6 mill-men, 1 *tailings-man [etc.]. |
| Ibid. 186 The silver or *tailings mill has not undergone any change. |
| 1862 Q. Rev. Apr. 286 When..the..*tailing-wheat or ‘gristing’ is sound and of good quality. |
| 1930 A. Groom Merry Christmas xx. 158 The cattle could be seen moving quietly to the *tailing yards. 1963 W. E. Harney To Ayers Rock & Beyond v. 45 During my early cattle days all mustering was done into drafting yards... They did not alter the method until the drafting-yards was superseded by the ‘tailing-yard’ with bronco-panels and twisted greenhide ropes with a leather ‘hoonda’ for the ring. |
▪ II. † ˈtailing, vbl. n.2 Obs. Also 4
-ende.
[f. tail v.2 + -ing1.] ? Tallying, reckoning.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. ix. 74 Ho is..Trewe of his tonge..And trusti of his taylende [B. viii. 82 tailende, taylyng] takeþ bote his owne. |
▪ III. tailing, ppl. a. (
ˈteɪlɪŋ)
[f. tail v.1 + -ing2.] That tails.
| 1899 Buxton in 19th Cent. Jan. 121 There is the ‘tailing’ fish [trout], feeding on caddis snail or shrimp, breaking the surface. 1908 Edin. Rev. Apr. 391 Offering the ‘tailing’ fish a floating fly. |