rooster tail

noun

1. the wake thrown up behind a speeding boat or the dust thrown up behind a speeding vehicle.

Word History and Origins

Origin of rooster tail¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

A speedboat trails “a rooster tail of foamy wake.”

From Washington Post

They kicked up a rooster tail of steam that made it almost impossible for Jason to see where they were going.

From Literature

Byron and Logano said the visibility was next to zero on the track’s two high-speed straights because of the rooster tail of spray spit out by the cars ahead.

From Seattle Times

And when the X-15 came back to earth, it landed with a nose wheel and rear skids that left a rooster tail of dust on the dry lake bed strip before it came to a top.

From Washington Post

Instead, the initial blowout formed a “rooster tail,” a gigantic jet of molten material, which exited the atmosphere, some of it fanning out over North America.

From The New Yorker