fishtail

noun

1. The tail of a fish, or an object resembling this.
2. The skidding of the back of a vehicle from side to side.
3. A kind of chisel with a flared blade.
4. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of fishtail palm.

verb

1. (intransitive)To swing the back of a vehicle (originally an aircraft) from side to side.

   “As we approached the runway, the pilot fishtailed slightly to reduce landing speed.”

2. (transitive)To cause the back of (a vehicle) to swing from side to side.

   “But Bruce wasn't done baiting the jocks. He fishtailed the car; it swerved and reversed direction, heading straight for the three jocks who were chasing them on foot. It looked like he was going to run the car over the three men.”

3. (intransitive)To move with the tail swinging from side to side in this way.

   “A large black and gold butterfly fish-tailed in and landed on a hydrangea bush almost at my elbow, moved its wings slowly up and down a few times, then took off heavily […]”

   “She'd sprinted away like Betty Cuthbert and the blue F.J. Holden was fishtailing up the street as fast as it could go.”

   “Having reversed at Eastbourne, I am in the trailing car, which leaps and fishtails around so much on our way to Bexhill that I have trouble writing coherent notes.”