tailrace

American  

[tayl-rays] / ˈteɪlˌreɪs /

noun

1. the race, flume, or channel leading away from a waterwheel or the like.

2. Mining. the channel for conducting tailings or refuse away in water.

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tailrace British  

/ ˈteɪlˌreɪs /

noun

1. a channel that carries water away from a water wheel, turbine, etc Compare headrace

2. mining the channel for removing tailings in water

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Etymology

Origin of tailrace

First recorded in 1770–80; tail ¹ + race ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tailrace

Something in the water flashed at him, and “about half an hour later, Marshall crawled out of the tailrace, cradling his hat to his chest like a hurt child,” exclaiming, “I have found it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

The mill would be water-powered, so it needed a tailrace, a shallow ditch to return the water to the river after it had given its push to the wheel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

The John Day dam is the worst, with on average 65 days each summer in which the river exceeds 68 degrees, measured in waters just below the dam, known as the tailrace.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2019

It sits astride the Columbia River, which loses as much as 70 feet of elevation as it falls through the building’s turbines and emerges, almost glass-smooth, in the powerhouse’s tailrace.

From Forbes ● Oct. 20, 2011

A convenient form of these wheels includes draft tubes, by which the wheel may be set several feet above the tailrace, and the advantage of this additional fall still be preserved.

From Electricity for the farm Light, heat and power by inexpensive methods from the water wheel or farm engine by Frederick Irving Anderson

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