Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Swallowtail
Swal′low-tailˊ
,Noun.
2.
(Bot.)
A species of willow.
3.
(Fort.)
An outwork with converging sides, its head or front forming a reentrant angle; – so called from its form. Called also
priestcap
. 4.
A swallow-tailed coat.
This Stultz coat, a blue
swallowtail
, with yellow buttons. Thackeray.
5.
An arrow.
Sir W. Scott.
6.
(Zool.)
Any one of numerous species of large and handsome butterflies, belonging to Papilio and allied genera, in which the posterior border of each hind wing is prolongated in the form of a long lobe.
Definition 2024
swallowtail
swallowtail
English
a swallow with a characteristic forked tail.
An eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly
Noun
swallowtail (plural swallowtails)
- The forked tail of a swallow.
- Anything, such as a burgee, of a similar forked shape.
- A type of tailcoat with two long tapering tails.Wp
- 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., OCLC 580270828:
- It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.
- 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., OCLC 580270828:
- Any of various butterflies of the family Papilionidae, having a forked extension to the hind wing.
Translations
tail of a swallow
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tailcoat
butterfly
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