tailpipe

or tail pipe

[ teyl-pahyp ]

/ ˈteɪlˌpaɪp /

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noun

an exhaust pipe located at the rear of a motor vehicle or aircraft powered by an internal-combustion engine.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of tailpipe

1880–85, in sense, “suction pipe of a pump”; 1905–10 for current sense; tail¹ + pipe¹

Words nearby tailpipe

tailor-make, tailor's chalk, tailor's-tack, tail out, tailpiece, tailpipe, tail plane, tailrace, tail rotor, tails, tail skid

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

How to use tailpipe in a sentence

So when you think about your car and you take it in for emissions testing, they hook up a device to your tailpipe and they see what’s coming out of your car and they give you a pass or fail grade.
Cybersecurity can protect data. How about elevators?|MIT Technology Review Insights|July 12, 2021|MIT Technology Review
The biggest climate problem with cars is tailpipe emissions.
Volvo wants to beat other automakers to climate-friendly steel|Tim McDonnell|June 16, 2021|Quartz
When Bekele went back inside 30 minutes later, he found Mersha slumped over in the driver’s seat, poisoned by the fumes flowing from the car’s tailpipe.
Texas Enabled the Worst Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Catastrophe in Recent U.S. History|by Perla Trevizo, Ren Larson, Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune; Mike Hixenbaugh and Suzy Khimm, NBC News|April 29, 2021|ProPublica
Electrification must happen much more quickly to reduce CO2 emissions from our tailpipes.
Use today’s tech solutions to meet the climate crisis and do it profitably|Walter Thompson|February 12, 2021|TechCrunch

General Motors changed sides in a battle over whether states — and specifically California — can set tailpipe emissions regulations and other rules meant to mitigate climate change that are stricter than the federal government.
The Station: COVID’s effect on car ownership|Kirsten Korosec|November 30, 2020|TechCrunch
The advantage of pure electric vehicles is no gasoline consumption and no tailpipe emissions.
Electric Vehicles May Be the Green Car of the Future, But Hybrids Are the Green Car of the Present|Megan McArdle|January 24, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Then they stuck a tailpipe back into the truck and sealed up the back.
‘Soldaten: Secret WWII Transcripts of German POWs’ by Soenke Neitzel & Harald Welzer|Sönke Neitzel, Harald Welzer|September 24, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.
Goodbye, GM|Michael Moore|June 1, 2009|DAILY BEAST

British Dictionary definitions for tailpipe

tailpipe

/ (ˈteɪlˌpaɪp) /

noun

a pipe from which the exhaust gases from an internal-combustion engine are discharged, esp the terminal pipe of the exhaust system of a motor vehicle

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