shavetail
Americannoun
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U.S. Army. a second lieutenant.
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a young, newly broken mule.
Etymology
Origin of shavetail
1840–50, shave + tail 1; originally in reference to unbroken army mules, whose tails were shaved for identification
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.
If Grove rolls in late, he has to prowl Intel's jammed lot looking for a space just like any shavetail engineer.
From Time Magazine Archive
After surpassing Ulysses S. Grant's record, "worst in the Academy's history,"* he wins his spurs at Bull Run, and, after a clerk's error inadvertently jumps him from a shavetail lieutenant to brigadier general, saves the war by leading three successive cavalry charges, considerably flustering Rebel Jeb Stuart and virtually annihilating his own Michigan Brigade.
From Time Magazine Archive
To several of us enlisted combat correspondents, he was "Little Artie," the mouse-quiet Reserve shavetail.
From Time Magazine Archive
The answer, essentially, is always the same: from John F. Kennedy to William Westmoreland to the freshest shavetail just off the jet at Bien Hoa, "They" underestimated Ho.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ford first noticed that he was unusual when a shavetail at Camp Grant.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
