rat-tail file
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of rat-tail file
First recorded in 1840–50
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.
You can bend a rat-tail file or ice pick in a vise to fashion a tool.
From Time Magazine Archive
The following is a list of "oilers" which the author has seen used:—Peg wood, broom straw, quill, toothpick, match-stick, screw driver, tweezers, rat-tail file, piece of copper wire, horse-shoe nail, steel pen.
From Friction, Lubrication and the Lubricants in Horology by Lewis, William T.
The satisfactory cutting of this groove is not a very easy matter, but if its position is first carefully marked, a long rat-tail file may be made to plough it out neatly and regularly.
From Butterflies and Moths (British) by Furneaux, William S.
It was laconic, but it sounded like a rat-tail file on steel.
From The Skipper and the Skipped Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul by Day, Holman
At the same time the Sergeant in charge of the big gun spiked it, by driving in a rat-tail file with a hammer and breaking it off close to the piece.
From In and Out of Rebel Prisons by Lieut. A.
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.
