tailing

SayTAYL-ing/ˈteɪlɪŋ/

5 meanings of tailing

1
nouncountable or uncountable
The act of secretly following a person to watch where they go.
Like quietly walking behind someone to find out where they are going.
The tailing of the thief led the police straight to the hideout.
Her careless tailing of the car gave the whole plan away.
Similarsurveillance, shadowing
2
verb
Present participle of tail. Use this form for an action happening right now.
The detective was tailing the suspect all afternoon.
Two police cars were tailing the truck down the highway.
Note
3
nouncountable or uncountable
The end of a brick or stone that is built into a wall to hold it in place.
Like the part of a shelf bracket hidden inside the wall that keeps the shelf from falling.
The mason set the tailing deep into the wall so the shelf would not tip.
A short tailing left the stone unstable, and it soon worked loose.
Note
4
noununcountable
A stretching out of the electric signal in a telegraph line that makes the dots and dashes blur together.
Like the last note of a song that keeps ringing and blurs into the next note.
The operator blamed the tailing on the long line between the two stations.
Heavy tailing made the incoming message almost impossible to read.
Note

Less common meaning

5
nounobsolete
The light bits of grain, like chaff, blown away from the good seed during threshing.
Like the thin papery skins that come off rice or nuts and get blown away.
The wind carried the tailing off across the field as the men threshed.
She raked the tailing into a pile to spread as bedding for the pigs.
Note

tailing is a form of tail

tail, verb: To follow someone closely, often secretly, to watch where they go and what they do. Full entry

Forms: tailtails he/she/ittailing -ing formtailed past tense, past participle
Spelling: tail → tailing: add -ing

Practice

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