pigtail
pigtail Lexical Profile
pigtail Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A braid or gathered bunch of hair worn on one or each side of the head, or hanging down the back.
"The little girl wore her hair in two neat pigtails tied with yellow ribbons."
A short, flexible length of electrical wire, cable, or optical fiber used to connect a stationary component to another circuit or terminal.
"The electrician stripped the ends of the copper pigtail to ground the metal outlet box."
A thin, twisted roll of tobacco.
"Merchants in the colonial port traded twists of pigtail alongside rum and molasses."
• verb
To splice or twist multiple electrical wires together with a short single lead for attachment to a terminal.
"You should pigtail the neutral wires together before securing them to the receptacle."
To braid or tie hair into one or two pigtails.
"She quickly pigtailed her daughter's hair before heading out to school."
• Rhymes for pigtail
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the late 17th century as a compound of 'pig' and 'tail', originally referring to a thin, twisted roll of chewing tobacco that resembled the curly tail of a pig before being applied to braided hairstyles in the 18th century.