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To swing with the stern in a certain direction; -- said of a vessel at anchor; as, this vessel tails down stream. Tail on. (Naut.) See Tally on, under Tally.

n. To tend a vessel (Naut.), to manage an anchored vessel when the tide turns, so that in swinging she shall not entangle the cable.

n the American and the European coasts. Called also fox shark, sea ape, sea fox, slasher, swingle-tail, and thrasher shark.

the sudden fall or blow of a heavy body, as of a hammer, or the like. The distant forge's swinging thump profound. Wordsworth. With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down, one by one. Coleridge.

e coarse and broken part of flax or hemp, separated from the finer part by the hatchel or swingle.

A swinging horizontal bar, suspended at each end by a rope; -- used by gymnasts.

Adjustable laterally; having a lateral motion, or a swinging motion; adapted for giving lateral motion. Traversing plate (Mil.), one of two thick iron plates at the hinder part of a gun carriage, where the handspike is applied in traversing the piece. Wilhelm. -- Traversing platform (Mil.), a platform for traversing g…

le made by the line of a vessel's keel and the direction of the anchor cable, when she is swinging at anchor.

To remove (something hanging or swinging) from that which supports it; as, to unhang a gate.

To sway or swing aloft; as, to upsway a club. [R.] Sir W. Scott.

A lid, plug, or cover, applied to an aperture so that by its movement, as by swinging, lifting and falling, sliding, turning, or the like, it will open or close the aperture to permit or prevent passage, as of a fluid.

To brandish; to move to and fro; to swing; as, to vibrate a sword or a staff.

To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter. With banners and pennons wavering with the wind. Ld. Berners. Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities. Sir W. Scott.

To bear up; to raise; to lift into the air; to swing up; as, to weigh anchor. "Weigh the vessel up." Cowper.

The pivoted or swinging bar to which the traces, or tugs, of a harness are fastened, and by which a carriage, a plow, or other implement or vehicle, is drawn; a whiffletree; a swingletree; a singletree. See Singletree. [People] cut their own whippletree in the woodlot. Emerson.

A piece generally projecting from a rotating or swinging piece, as an axle or rock shaft, for the purpose of raising stampers, lifting rods, or the like, and leaving them to fall by their own weight; a kind of cam.

. It is chiefly due to plumbism. Called also hand drop. -- Wrist plate (Steam Engine), a swinging plate bearing two or more wrists, for operating the valves.