wagtail

American  

[wag-teyl] / ˈwægˌteɪl /

noun

1. any of numerous small, chiefly Old World birds of the family Motacillidae, having a slender body with a long, narrow tail tails that is habitually wagged up and down.

2. any of several similar birds, as the water thrushes of the genus Seiurus.

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wagtail British  

/ ˈwæɡˌteɪl /

noun

1. any of various passerine songbirds of the genera Motacilla and Dendronanthus, of Eurasia and Africa, having a very long tail that wags when the bird walks: family Motacillidae

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Etymology

Origin of wagtail

First recorded in 1500–10; wag + tail ¹

Example Sentences

“The ballerina gialla,” Pira said, is the Italian name for the grey wagtail.

From Washington Post • May 13, 2022

Amid these increasingly threatened habitats dwell elk and bison, too, as well as smaller creatures, from fox, marmot, and minx to mountain wagtail, two-tailed owl, and golden eagle.

From Slate • Oct. 31, 2016

Von Frisch reported that when one of Yugoslavia's Carniolan bees does her "wagtail dance." shaking her abdomen while walking a figure eight, it means that food is more than 300 ft. away.

From Time Magazine Archive

It may be of interest to record that in walking through St. James's Park today I noticed a grey wagtail.

From Time Magazine Archive

Molly, mol′i, n. dim. of Mary: the wagtail bird.—n.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various