yellowtail, n. (a.)
(ˈjɛləʊteɪl)
A name (or epithet = yellow-tailed) for various animals with yellow tails or yellow coloration on the tail.
† 1. A kind of earthworm: cf. gilt-tail. Obs.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 307 Othersome againe are yellow onely about the tayle: Whereuppon they haue purchased the name of Yellow-tayles. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 210/2 The Ascarides, or lesser Earth-worm,..Some are yellow, called Yellow-Tails, or Golden Tails. |
2. Name for various fishes, chiefly of N. America, Australia, and New Zealand, as various species of Seriola, Caranx, and Latris, and many others.
| 1709 Dampier's Voy. III. ii. 143 The Sea and Rivers [New Guinea] have plenty of Fish;..we catch'd but few, and these were Cavallies, Yellow-tails and Whip-rays. 1796 Nemnich Polygl.-Lex. 944 Yellow tail, (a) Perca punctata. (b) Scomber. 1838 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XXIV. 370/2 S[ciæna] Xanthurus;..Yellow-tailed Smooth-mouth... Found on the Carolina coast, where it is called the Yellow-tail. 1847 J. C. Ross Voy. Antarctic Reg. II. 117 A kind of mackarel, called yellow tail, and sometimes cavallo. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Yellow-tail, a well-known tropical fish often in company with whip-rays; it is about 4 feet long, with a great head, large eyes, and many fins. Leiostomas. 1875 Melliss St. Helena 106 Seriola lalandii,..The Yellow Tail of St. Helena is obtained also in the Atlantic, at Japan and Australia. 1888 Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish (1892) xvi. 45 The yellow-tail rockfish (S[ebastichthys] flavidus). 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 99 The ‘Sailor's Choice’ [Lagodon rhomboides]..bears several other names,..being known..in the Indian River region as the..‘Scup’, and ‘Yellow-tail’. Ibid. 131 The Yellow Tail, Bairdiella chrysura, known as ‘Silver Perch’ on the coast of New Jersey. Ibid. 386 In North Carolina..the names ‘Yellow-tail’ and ‘Yellow-tail Shad’ [for the Menhaden] are occasionally heard. 1897 B. Harraden in Blackw. Mag. Feb. 179 The yellow-tail is rather like a solid beefsteak of coarse fibre. 1898 Morris Austral Eng. |
3. (Also yellow-tail warbler.) The female or young male of the American Redstart.
| 1775 Dalrymple in Phil. Trans. (1779) LXVIII. 410 Many yellow tails. 1785 Pennant Arct. Zool. II. 406 Yellow-tail Warbler. With an ash-colored crown:..Taken..off Hispaniola, at sea. |
4. Collectors' name for a species of moth, also called gold-tail (see gold1 10).
| 1749 B. Wilkes Eng. Moths, etc. 28 The Yellow-tail Moth..may be found sticking against the Barks of the Trees in Parks. 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. ii. (1818) I. 30 The yellow-tail moth (Bombyx chrysorhœa, F.). |