tailgate

1
[ teyl-geyt ]
See synonyms for tailgate on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the board or gate at the back of a wagon, truck, station wagon, etc., which can be removed or let down for convenience in loading or unloading.

verb (used without object),tail·gat·ed, tail·gat·ing.
  1. to follow or drive hazardously close to the rear of another vehicle.

verb (used with object),tail·gat·ed, tail·gat·ing.
  1. to follow or drive hazardously close to the rear of (another vehicle).

adjective
  1. pertaining to or set up on a tailgate: a tailgate picnic before the football game.

Origin of tailgate

1
An Americanism dating back to 1850–55; tail1 + gate1

Other definitions for tailgate (2 of 2)

tailgate2
[ teyl-geyt ]

nounJazz.
  1. a style of playing the trombone, especially in Dixieland jazz, distinguished especially by the use of melodic counterpoint and long glissandi.

Origin of tailgate

2
First recorded in 1945–50; so called from the usual seat of trombonists in trucks carrying musicians during a parade

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tailgate in a sentence

  • The end gate of a prairie schooner was lost on a hill, and Tail Gate mountain came into being.

    Down the Mother Lode | Vivia Hemphill
  • Why don't you get the tail gate of the bed wagon and use that?

    Jack the Young Cowboy | George Bird Grinnell
  • Maybe Frank will lend us the tail gate of his wagon to put over it.

    Jack the Young Cowboy | George Bird Grinnell
  • And now, at the tail gate of every wagon, lashed fast for its last long journey, hung also the family plow.

    The Covered Wagon | Emerson Hough
  • The cook, on being appealed to, declined to lend the tail gate of the cook wagon.

    Jack the Young Cowboy | George Bird Grinnell

British Dictionary definitions for tailgate (1 of 2)

tailgate

/ (ˈteɪlˌɡeɪt) /


noun
  1. another name for tailboard

  2. a door at the rear of a hatchback vehicle

verb
  1. to drive very close behind (a vehicle)

Derived forms of tailgate

  • tailgater, noun

British Dictionary definitions for tail gate (2 of 2)

tail gate

noun
  1. a gate that is used to control the flow of water at the lower end of a lock: Compare head gate

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012