# tailing

Pronunciation: say "TAYL-ing" /ˈteɪlɪŋ/

## Noun

1. The act of following someone, especially to keep watch on their movements.
   - Simple: The act of secretly following a person to watch where they go.
   - _The tailing of the suspect continued for nearly a week before any arrest._
   - _A botched tailing alerted the smugglers and ruined the whole operation._
3. The portion of a projecting brick or stone that is embedded in a wall to hold it firm.
   - Simple: The end of a brick or stone that is built into a wall to hold it in place.
   - _The architect specified a longer tailing to keep the heavy cornice from overturning._
   - _Insufficient tailing on each block caused the projecting course to sag over time._
4. A prolongation of current in a telegraph line, caused by capacity in the line, that makes successive signals run together.
   - Simple: A stretching out of the electric signal in a telegraph line that makes the dots and dashes blur together.
   - _Engineers reduced the tailing by shortening the cable run between relays._
   - _On the long undersea cable, severe tailing slowed transmission dramatically._

## Verb

2. Present participle of tail. — present participle and gerund of tail
   - Simple: Present participle of tail. Use this form for an action happening right now.
   - _The reporters were tailing the senator, hoping for an unguarded quote._
   - _A drone kept tailing the convoy across the open desert._

## Noun

5. The light refuse of grain, such as husks, that threshing and winnowing separate from the seed. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The light bits of grain, like chaff, blown away from the good seed during threshing.
   - _After a long day at the flail, the tailing lay heaped beside the clean wheat._
   - _The miller swept the tailing from the floor and saved it for the cattle._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tailing (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).