run vs tail

run

verb
  • To sail before the wind, in distinction from reaching or sailing close-hauled. 

  • To carry (a football) down the field, as opposed to passing or kicking. 

  • Of an object, to have a liquid flowing from it. 

  • To print or broadcast in the media. 

  • To pursue in thought; to carry in contemplation. 

  • To put at hazard; to venture; to risk. 

  • To be a candidate in an election. 

  • To fuse; to shape; to mould; to cast. 

  • To control or manage, be in charge of. 

  • To smuggle (illegal goods). 

  • To go at a fast pace; to move quickly. 

  • To extend in space or through a range (often with a measure phrase). 

  • To execute or carry out a plan, procedure, or program. 

  • To make run in a race. 

  • To transit a length of a river, as in whitewater rafting. 

  • To control or have precedence in a card game. 

  • To move forward quickly upon two feet by alternately making a short jump off either foot. (Compare walk.) 

  • To leak or spread in an undesirable fashion; to bleed (especially used of dye or paint). 

  • To exert continuous activity; to proceed. 

  • To sew (a seam) by passing the needle through material in a continuous line, generally taking a series of stitches on the needle at the same time. 

  • To become different in a way mentioned (usually to become worse). 

  • To cause to move quickly or lightly. 

  • To cause to enter; to thrust. 

  • To speedrun. 

  • To be in form thus, as a combination of words. 

  • To juggle a pattern continuously, as opposed to starting and stopping quickly. 

  • To move or spread quickly. 

  • To sort through a large volume of produce in quality control. 

  • To extend in time, to last, to continue (usually with a measure phrase). 

  • To make a machine operate. 

  • To become liquid; to melt. 

  • To make something extend in space. 

  • Of a machine, including computer programs, to be operating or working normally. 

  • To achieve or perform by running or as if by running. 

  • To pass (without stopping), typically a stop signal, stop sign, or duty to yield the right of way. 

  • To transport someone or something, notionally at a brisk pace. 

  • To be presented in the media. 

  • Of a means of transportation: to travel (a route). 

  • To cost a large amount of money. 

  • Of stitches or stitched clothing, to unravel. 

  • To tend, as to an effect or consequence; to incline. 

  • To encounter or suffer (a particular, usually bad, fate or misfortune). 

  • Of a liquid, to flow. 

  • To compete in a race. 

  • Of fish, to migrate for spawning. 

  • To make run in an election. 

  • To drive or force; to cause, or permit, to be driven. 

  • To have growth or development. 

  • To have a legal course; to be attached; to continue in force, effect, or operation; to follow; to go in company. 

  • To cause to be drawn; to mark out; to indicate; to determine. 

  • To flee from a danger or towards help. 

  • To pass or go quickly in thought or conversation. 

  • To encounter or incur (a danger or risk). 

  • To tease with sarcasms and ridicule. 

  • To make a liquid flow; to make liquid flow from or into an object. 

  • To strike (the ball) in such a way as to cause it to run along the ground, as when approaching a hole. 

tail

verb
  • To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor. 

  • To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in or into 

  • To follow and observe surreptitiously. 

  • To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded. 

  • To pull or draw by the tail. 

adj
  • Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed. 

noun
  • All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on. 

  • A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style. 

  • Sexual intercourse. 

  • Synonym of pigtail (“a short length of twisted electrical wire”) 

  • A train or company of attendants; a retinue. 

  • The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse. 

  • A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing. 

  • The part of a distribution most distant from the mode; as, a long tail. 

  • A filamentous projection on the tornal section of each hind wing of certain butterflies. 

  • Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs. 

  • One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times. 

  • The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird. 

  • The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything. 

  • The penis of a person or animal. 

  • A tailing. 

  • The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus. 

  • The distal tendon of a muscle. 

  • The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile. 

  • One who surreptitiously follows another. 

  • The tail-end of an object, e.g. the rear of an aircraft's fuselage, containing the tailfin. 

  • The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem. 

  • The lower order of batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers. 

  • The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y. 

  • The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage. 

  • The stern; the back of the kayak. 

  • The buttocks or backside. 

  • An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails. 

  • The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind. 

  • A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything. 

  • The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part. 

How often have the words run and tail occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )