bobtail
Americanadjective
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Also bobtailed having a bobtail.
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cut short; docked; cropped.
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shorter or briefer than usual; abbreviated.
Several legislative items must be dropped from the current bobtail session of Congress.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a docked or diminutive tail
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an animal with such a tail
adjective
verb
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to dock the tail of
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to cut short; curtail
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bobtailsimple
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bobtailssimple
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have bobtailedperfect
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has bobtailedperfect
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am bobtailingprogressive
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are bobtailingprogressive
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is bobtailingprogressive
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have been bobtailingperfect progressive
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has been bobtailingperfect progressive
Past
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bobtailedsimple
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had bobtailedperfect
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was bobtailingprogressive
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were bobtailingprogressive
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had been bobtailingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bobtail
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He drives a bobtail truck moving furniture across Southern California.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2024
It was a large, robust cat about the size of a jaguar, with an elongated face, lanky front legs, and a sloping back that ended in a bobtail.
From Science Daily ● May 30, 2024
Crook’s group has been comparing several painkillers in bobtail squid, but Crook says that they haven’t had much luck figuring out which drugs are the most effective, despite testing hundreds of animals.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 20, 2023
Research will shift from the day octopus to the Hawaiian bobtail squid, which is unregulated.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 16, 2023
This one was almost twice as large, chunky and heavy, with a short bobtail and thick furry legs.
From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford
Folks ain't got no right to censuah othah folks about dey habits; Him dat giv' de squir'ls de bushtails made de bobtails fu' de rabbits.
From The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Howells, William Dean
Sometimes he calls the Academicians, "Sons of Canvas;" sometimes "Tagrags and bobtails of the sacred brush."
From History of English Humour, Vol. 2 by L'Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingan
The wonderful Wizard had asked to join the party, and with him came his friend the Shaggy Man, who was shaggy but not ragged, being dressed in fine silks with satin shags and bobtails.
From The Emerald City of Oz by Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank)
“If you cannot see the difference between that frumpish gown of yours, with its little bobtails and fringes, and those pretty dresses before us, I must say you are as blind as a bat, Mattie.”
From Not Like Other Girls by Carey, Rosa Nouchette
That’s what father always says to visitors who bring bobtails and chokers.
From Three Boys or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai by Fenn, George Manville
So did the widely-held opinion that bobtailed, high-stepping English hackneys are more suited to coaching than U. S. standard-bred trotters.
From Time Magazine Archive
First came one normal, one tailless and one bobtailed kitten.
From Time Magazine Archive
Suddenly, a rabbit bounded out of a nearby hole and fled across the heather in a series of bobtailed bounces, heading straight for a patch of scrub fir trees.
From Time Magazine Archive
McClean now had two American tiny-tub artists to beat, and earlier this month he succeeded, despite a broken mast in the Bay of Biscay, reaching Portugal in the bobtailed Giltspur, now a mere 7 ft.
From Time Magazine Archive
The bobtailed devil heard it, and thought: "I could not cope with him on the rye, but I will get the better of him in the oats,—just let the morning come."
From Fables for Children, Stories for Children, Natural Science Stories, Popular Education, Decembrists, Moral Tales by Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Other terms that will prove catnip for lovers of professional slang: bobtailing, deadheading, lollipops.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
