tag vs tail

tag

noun
  • A metallic binding, tube, or point, at the end of a string, or lace, to stiffen it. 

  • Graffiti in the form of a stylized signature particular to the artist. 

  • Something mean and paltry; the rabble. 

  • A sheep in its first year. 

  • The last line (or last two lines) of a song's chorus that is repeated to indicate the end of the song. 

  • Any short peptide sequence artificially attached to proteins mostly in order to help purify, solubilize or visualize these proteins. 

  • A children's chasing game in which one player (known as "it") attempts to touch another, who then becomes "it". 

  • An instance of touching the baserunner with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand to rule him "out." 

  • The last scene of a TV program, often focusing on the program's subplot. 

  • A person's name. 

  • Any slight appendage, as to an article of dress; something slight hanging loosely. 

  • A type of cardboard. 

  • A keyword, term, or phrase associated with or assigned to data, media, and/or information enabling keyword-based classification; often used to categorize content. 

  • The end, or catchword, of an actor's speech; cue. 

  • A small label. 

  • A skin tag, an excrescence of skin. 

  • An attribution in narrated dialogue (eg, "he said") or attributed words (e.g. "he thought"). 

  • A vehicle number plate; a medal bearing identification data (animals, soldiers). 

  • A dangling lock of sheep's wool, matted with dung; a dung tag. 

  • A decoration drawn over some Hebrew letters in Jewish scrolls. 

  • A piece of markup representing an element in a markup language. 

verb
  • To mark (something) with one’s tag. 

  • To label (something). 

  • To remove dung tags from a sheep. 

  • To put a runner out by touching them with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand. 

  • To follow closely, accompany, tag along. 

  • To catch and touch (a player in the game of tag). 

  • To fit with, or as if with, a tag or tags. 

  • to have sex with someone (especially a man of a woman) 

  • To fasten; to attach. 

  • To mark with a tag (metadata for classification). 

  • To hit the ball hard. 

tail

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

  • 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. 

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

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

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

  • 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. 

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