What's the difference between tail and wail?

Tail


Definition:

  • (n.) Limitation; abridgment.
  • (a.) Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed; as, estate tail.
  • (n.) The terminal, and usually flexible, posterior appendage of an animal.
  • (n.) Any long, flexible terminal appendage; whatever resembles, in shape or position, the tail of an animal, as a catkin.
  • (n.) Hence, the back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything, -- as opposed to the head, or the superior part.
  • (n.) A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
  • (n.) The side of a coin opposite to that which bears the head, effigy, or date; the reverse; -- rarely used except in the expression "heads or tails," employed when a coin is thrown up for the purpose of deciding some point by its fall.
  • (n.) The distal tendon of a muscle.
  • (n.) A downy or feathery appendage to certain achenes. It is formed of the permanent elongated style.
  • (n.) A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; -- called also tailing.
  • (n.) One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
  • (n.) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
  • (n.) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
  • (n.) Same as Tailing, 4.
  • (n.) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part, as a slate or tile.
  • (n.) See Tailing, n., 5.
  • (v. t.) To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
  • (v. t.) To pull or draw by the tail.
  • (v. i.) To hold by the end; -- said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; -- with in or into.
  • (v. i.) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; -- said of a vessel at anchor; as, this vessel tails down stream.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The anatomic and functional development of the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) was studied in the gray short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica.
  • (2) The electrical stimulation of the tail associated to a restraint condition of the rat produces a significant increase of immunoreactive DYN in cervical, thoracic and lumbar segments of spinal cord, therefore indicating a correlative, if not causal, relationship between the spinal dynorphinergic system and aversive stimuli.
  • (3) This behavior consists of a very rapid bend of the body and tail that is thought to arise from the monosynaptic excitation of large primary motoneurons by the Mauthner cell.
  • (4) Platinum deer mice are conspicuously pale, with light ears and tail stripe.
  • (5) After isolation of the complex IV only gpFII and tails are required for mature phage formation in vitro.
  • (6) Earlier recognition of foul-smelling mucoid discharge on the IUD tail, or abnormal bleeding, or both, as a sign of early pelvic infection, followed by removal of the IUD and institution of appropriate antibiotic therapy, might prevent the more serious sequelae of pelvic inflammation.
  • (7) produced a strong analgesic effect in the formalin test and in the tail pinch test.
  • (8) Scientists at the University of Trento, Italy, have discovered that the way a dog's tail moves is linked to its mood, and by observing each other's tails, dogs can adjust their behaviour accordingly .
  • (9) Body weight (BW) and nose-tail length were less in the hypoxic exposed (H) rats than in control (C) animals growing in air.
  • (10) Nitrous oxide produced a dose-related analgesic response in rats (ED50, 67%) as measured by the tail-flick method.
  • (11) A total of 23 phage specific proteins (including four head and six tail proteins) could be identified after SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of extracts from phage SPP1 infected Bacillus subtilis cells.
  • (12) g (SD 0.15, N = 21), which was similar to tail skin.
  • (13) Slager, 33, was a patrolman first class for the North Charleston police department when he fatally shot Scott, 50, following a struggle that led from a traffic stop when the officer noticed that one of Scott’s car tail lights was broken.
  • (14) The patients' preoperative clinical status affected the results of surgery (Breslow p less than 0.03, Mantel p less than 0.02; one-tailed tests).
  • (15) These apparent conflicting results between IK and the tail current could not be explained by extracellular K+ fluctuation, because 20 mM Cs+ alone depressed both factors, but an additional application of Ba2+ caused an increase in both components compared with those in the former condition.
  • (16) Some of them situated in a particular environment fused with the tail sequence to produce monomeric ubiquitin genes that were maintained across species.
  • (17) Deletion of a carboxyl-terminal sequence, comprising the transmembrane domain and short cytoplasmic tail of the alpha chain of the T cell antigen receptor (TCR-alpha), prevented the rapid degradation of this polypeptide.
  • (18) We have investigated enhancement of pigmentation in inbred C3H- mice using tail skin as a model for testing the effects of phosphorylated DOPA (DP) and ultraviolet radiation.
  • (19) Diltiazem also produced a slight decrease of both the steady-state current during depolarization and the tail current after repolarization in these concentration ranges, while the hyperpolarization activated current (Ih) was not affected significantly.
  • (20) A fluorescent fucose-specific lectin-stained bodies and not tails of the organism.

Wail


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To choose; to select.
  • (v. t.) To lament; to bewail; to grieve over; as, to wail one's death.
  • (v. i.) To express sorrow audibly; to make mournful outcry; to weep.
  • (n.) Loud weeping; violent lamentation; wailing.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) You couldn't get much more bohemian than the music playing in this room of tiny round tables, first French crooner Serge Gainsbourg and then cabaret freak Scott Walker wailing of their obelisk-size pain.
  • (2) Every now and then some rich Oga or Madam comes along in their bulletproof cars and wailing sirens, and distorts the delicate equilibrium of this body of traffic.
  • (3) In groups 1 and 2, clusters of cylindrical tubules, typical of the male gland, decreased in number and disappeared almost completely 2 wailed in these two groups throughout the remaining period of experiment.
  • (4) "Barcelona's habit of playing midfielders in defence will do them more harm than good," he wails.
  • (5) "Gnnmph, I can't 'ave it 'ere, I 'aven't 'ad my enema," wails a labouring housewife, straining fruitlessly on a communal tenement bog as horrified neighbours look on in their rollers.
  • (6) There were moments when music seemed to struggle to be heard over the tocking of iPod clickwheels and the wailing of record company executives.
  • (7) The army cleared itself of responsibility for the killing of a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach three weeks ago during an artillery barrage after many Israelis were shaken by television pictures of a traumatised child wailing over the body of her father.
  • (8) While Arsenal fans have spent the last nine years gnashing and wailing, Hull supporters have cheered the incredible resurrection of their club, as David Conn explains here .
  • (9) Some family members, after years of begging for mercy and receiving none, broke down and wailed.
  • (10) The big story Once upon a time the Oscar ceremony was a comforting drone punctuated only by the odd song-and-dance routine and the banshee wailing of overwhelmed best actress award winners.
  • (11) Elsewhere on the carpet Quentin Tarantino is having a bop with Uma Thurman (again), Xavier Dolan is wearing an outrageous tux (again) and the boring normal people at the barriers are wailing for stars' attention (again).
  • (12) Later that night, Lola wailed in the street as the police prised her baby from her arms and led her into custody.
  • (13) Family members who had gathered at a hotel in Beijing wailed as they heard the news.
  • (14) Naderi offered his prayers to Dhu’s family at the end of his evidence, saying: “I wish I was able to pick up any abnormal signs that may have made a difference.” Carol Roe ran crying from the courtroom, her wail flowing back through the door to where Naderi was seated in the witness box.
  • (15) Sorrowful wails and sobs resounded as thousands of Rwandans packed the country's main sports stadium to mark the 20th anniversary of the beginning of a devastating 100-day genocide.
  • (16) Sandy breaking out of the compound BB3 Sandy's insistence on his quirkiness got rather wearing, so it was just as well he made a bid for escape, with his new best friend Alex wailing, "Be careful, Sandy, be careful!"
  • (17) Starbucks admitted that while it can (quite incredibly) claim that its 700 UK stores are not profitable, through wails of what seemed like crocodile tears, its 30 coffee traders in Switzerland make an enormous 20% profit margin despite never seeing a coffee bean; a fact that the committee could not have helped noting might be related to the 12% tax it pays in that state.
  • (18) Their players are distraught and making a mess of everything, while the TV producer here is having an absolute ball picking out wailing Brazilians in the crowd.
  • (19) Another shows a scene of villagers wailing with grief: “Villagers grieve as their friend is put into the ambulance,” the voiceover says.
  • (20) Among those who finally decided that Kobani was on the brink was Mukdad Bozan, travelling with his wife, a wailing baby and three bedraggled older children.

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