See floptail in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"ref": "1909 August 23, The Twofold Bay Magnet, NSW, page 3, column 2:",
"text": "After flop-tailing a while, there were to be noticed Hookie, Cooper, Jackson, Typee, Tom, Kincher, and other killers as known by their distinctive dorsal fins, ranged in semi-circular form between Look-out Point and North Head.",
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"ref": "1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 136:",
"text": "[T]wo or three of the killer pack started to floptail about at the entrance to the river.",
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"ref": "1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 215:",
"text": "‘Remember how Tom and Jackson and Hooky used to come in and floptail to let us know they had a whale bailed up outside?’",
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"ref": "1980, W.F. Perrin and A.C Myrick Jr., Age Determination of Toothed Whales and Sirenians, Cambridge: International Whaling Comission, page 146, column 2:",
"text": "The line was unwound by Geo. Davidson, the killer remaining quiet and then it ‘floptailed’ before making off.",
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"ref": "2003, Robert Holden, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Sydney: HarperCollins, page 268:",
"text": "They throw themselves out of the water, floptailing to alert us to the quarry, and then the cry of ‘Rushoo!’ will resound around the bay as we scramble for the boats.",
"type": "quotation"
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],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of lobtail."
],
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"(Australia, obsolete) Synonym of lobtail."
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"word": "floptail"
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"ref": "1849, James Ward, Perils, Pastimes, and Pleasures of an Emigrant in Australia, Vancouver's Island and California, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, page 126:",
"text": "‘Stand by to lower-down with your falls.’ ‘There’s blackskin,’ meaning the whale itself. ‘There she breaches.’ ‘That’s only floptail.’",
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"ref": "1927 December 10, The Australasian, Melbourne, page 63, column 1:",
"text": "Years ago when there were more killers one of them would go to the mouth of the river and call up the whaleboat by jumping right out of the water and bringing its tail down hard on the water, so as to make a smack that can he heard all over the bay. This is called ‘flop tail.’",
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"(Australia, obsolete) The action of lobtailing."
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"ref": "1909 August 23, The Twofold Bay Magnet, NSW, page 3, column 2:",
"text": "After flop-tailing a while, there were to be noticed Hookie, Cooper, Jackson, Typee, Tom, Kincher, and other killers as known by their distinctive dorsal fins, ranged in semi-circular form between Look-out Point and North Head.",
"type": "quotation"
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45,
53
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"text": "[T]wo or three of the killer pack started to floptail about at the entrance to the river.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
60,
68
]
],
"ref": "1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 215:",
"text": "‘Remember how Tom and Jackson and Hooky used to come in and floptail to let us know they had a whale bailed up outside?’",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
79,
89
]
],
"ref": "1980, W.F. Perrin and A.C Myrick Jr., Age Determination of Toothed Whales and Sirenians, Cambridge: International Whaling Comission, page 146, column 2:",
"text": "The line was unwound by Geo. Davidson, the killer remaining quiet and then it ‘floptailed’ before making off.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
40,
51
]
],
"ref": "2003, Robert Holden, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Sydney: HarperCollins, page 268:",
"text": "They throw themselves out of the water, floptailing to alert us to the quarry, and then the cry of ‘Rushoo!’ will resound around the bay as we scramble for the boats.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
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"Synonym of lobtail."
],
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]
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"(Australia, obsolete) Synonym of lobtail."
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"ref": "1849, James Ward, Perils, Pastimes, and Pleasures of an Emigrant in Australia, Vancouver's Island and California, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, page 126:",
"text": "‘Stand by to lower-down with your falls.’ ‘There’s blackskin,’ meaning the whale itself. ‘There she breaches.’ ‘That’s only floptail.’",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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266,
275
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],
"ref": "1927 December 10, The Australasian, Melbourne, page 63, column 1:",
"text": "Years ago when there were more killers one of them would go to the mouth of the river and call up the whaleboat by jumping right out of the water and bringing its tail down hard on the water, so as to make a smack that can he heard all over the bay. This is called ‘flop tail.’",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The action of lobtailing."
],
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"(Australia, obsolete) The action of lobtailing."
],
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}
],
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}
Download raw JSONL data for floptail meaning in English (4.6kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-10-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-10-01 using wiktextract (c1bb342 and 6f96ddf). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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