pintail

[ pin-teyl ]

/ ˈpɪnˌteɪl /

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noun, plural pin·tails, (especially collectively) pin·tail.

a long-necked river duck, Anas acuta, of the Old and New Worlds, having long and narrow middle tail feathers.

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Origin of pintail

First recorded in 1760–70; pin + tail¹

Words nearby pintail

pint, pinta, pintadera, pintado, pintado petrel, pintail, pin-tailed, pintano, Pinter, Pinterest, pin the tail on the donkey

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pintail in a sentence

Among the earliest of the birds to forsake the plains of Hindustan are the grey-lag goose and the pintail duck.
A Bird Calendar for Northern India|Douglas Dewar
By the third week in August good bags of pintail snipe are sometimes obtained in Bengal.
A Bird Calendar for Northern India|Douglas Dewar
The pintail snipe (Gallinago stenura) are invariably the first to appear, but they visit only the eastern parts of Northern India.
A Bird Calendar for Northern India|Douglas Dewar
The common pintail duck, (Anas acuta,) is found here in vast flocks.
Early Western Travels 1748-1846, Volume 21|Various

The movements of Pintail, as just stated, are clearly regulated by the state of water in the marshes.
Wild Spain (Espaa agreste)|Abel Chapman

British Dictionary definitions for pintail

pintail

/ (ˈpɪnˌteɪl) /

noun plural -tails or -tail

a greyish-brown duck, Anas acuta, with slender pointed wings and a pointed tail

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012