Tailer
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 One who follows or tails surreptitiously, as an investigator.
"I had to concentrate on staying out of sight, yet close enough not to be stranded on the wrong side of a stoplight. I was working so hard at it that I didn't notice that the tailer had become the tailee."
- 2 A worker on a yacht, responsible for furling and setting the sails.
"The next step was the invention of the self-tailing device, whereby the need for a tailer, holding the sheet or halyard while another person operated the winch, was eliminated."
- 3 A large noose with a long handle intended to secure a fish's tail.
- 4 A fish bottom-feeding in shallow water with its tail out of the water.
Example
More examples"I had to concentrate on staying out of sight, yet close enough not to be stranded on the wrong side of a stoplight. I was working so hard at it that I didn't notice that the tailer had become the tailee."
Etymology
From tail + -er.
More for "tailer"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.