noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The tail of an ox or cow.
2. 2
   the skinned tail of cattle; used especially for soups wordnet
3. 3
   A cut of meat taken from the tail of a cow or calf; it requires long, slow braising, and is used to prepare oxtail soup.

Etymology

From Middle English ox tayll, from Old English oxan tæġl (literally “ox's tail”), equivalent to ox + tail.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.