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tailgate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Tailgate

English

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A pickup truck with an open tailgate (1).
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The tailgates (3) of Camden Lock are in the foreground.
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“No tailgating” sign (verb, sense 2).

Alternative forms

Etymology

From tail +‎ gate. Compare liftgate.

Pronunciation

Noun

tailgate (plural tailgates)

  1. (automotive) A hinged board or hatch at the rear of a vehicle that can be lowered for loading and unloading.
    Synonym: tailboard
    Drop the tailgate, please, and I'll load these pallets.
    • 2007, Stephen Linn, The Ultimate Tailgater's Racing Guide‎, →ISBN:
      When they first attached tailgates to cars, we were hooked. By the 1970s, wagons with names like Vista Cruiser and Town & Country sported tailgates as big as dining tables.
  2. (especially British) The hinged rear door of a hatchback.
    Synonym: hatch
    Open up the tailgate, please, and retrieve her suitcases.
  4. The downstream gate in the lock on a canal or river, or in an irrigation system.
    Antonym: headgate
    Hypernyms: sluice gate, watergate, water gate < gate
    The locktender closed the tailgate and the chamber started to fill.
  6. (US) Ellipsis of tailgate party.
    Are you coming to the tailgate? We'll be grilling brisket.
    • 2013 November 8, Nancy M. Better, “Tailgating Gets Online Playbooks”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      The website was created by Harry St. John, a former college athlete who wanted to take the agony out of managing tailgates.
  7. (mining) A tunnel for drawing spent air away from the working face of a mine.
    Coordinate term: maingate

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

tailgate (third-person singular simple present tailgates, present participle tailgating, simple past and past participle tailgated)

  1. (automotive, intransitive, transitive) To drive dangerously close behind another vehicle.
    That idiot has been tailgating me for the last five minutes.
    • 2002 October 19, Helen Carter, “That's no lady - that's the heiress who taunted neighbours”, in The Guardian‎:
      She also tailgated them at high speed in her convertible yellow Mercedes.
    • 2013 August 19, Chris Chambers, “Bad driving: what are we thinking?”, in The Guardian‎:
      Last week the UK government announced a crackdown on unsafe driving. From now on, those of us spotted tailgating or lane hogging will face on-the-spot fines of £100 and three penalty points.
  2. To follow another person through access control on their access, rather than on one’s own credentials, especially when entering a door controlled by a card reader.
    Synonyms: piggyback, draft
    • 2018 September 10, “ABC tightens Sydney security after man allegedly infiltrates building and assaults employee”, in The Guardian‎:
      An email circulated to ABC employees says Gallagher is believed to have tailgated staff walking through the building’s high-security doors.
  3. (finance, of a broker) To privately purchase or sell a security immediately after trading in the same security for a client.
    Coordinate term: front run
  4. (US, intransitive) To have a tailgate party.
    • 2007 September 13, Charlie Day & David Hornsby & Glenn Howerton, “The Gang Gets Invincible” (3:56 from the start), in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia‎, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day):
      “Hey, what are you guys doing?” “Dude, we're gonna tailgate the tryouts.” “Oh, shit. That's a good idea. Oh, you gonna bust out Green Man, bro?” “No. No Green Man.” “What's Green Man?” “Well, in high school, Charlie was like our school mascot.” “A mascot nobody wanted. He'd get wasted and dress in this green spandex bodysuit.” “Spandex?” “It was really sad.” “That's it.” “You gotta bring the Green Man suit.” “Yeah, no. Done with it.” “The spandex.” “Green Man was good. It got me through some hard times. But I'm done with it. Tell you what. You can wear it if you want, but I'm just gonna be relaxing, okay? This is gonna be about chilling out for me.” “No. This is gonna be exactly like Woodstock.”
    • 2013 September 29, Ken Belson, “The Tailgate Experience, British Style”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      The point, Goldstein discovered through a lot of long days hanging out in parking lots, is that tailgating — the gustatory madness, the multigenerational camaraderie, the decked-out vans — is as essential a part of football as the game itself.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Further reading

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