"turn tail" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "turns tail",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "turning tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "turned tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "turned tail",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "turn tail (third-person singular simple present turns tail, present participle turning tail, simple past and past participle turned tail)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1838, Charles Dickens, “Some Particulars Concerning A Lion”, in Mudfog and Other Sketches:",
          "text": "A box-lobby lion or a Regent-street animal . . . will never bite, and, if you offer to attack him manfully, will fairly turn tail and sneak off.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Flight in the Heather: The Heugh of Corrynakiegh”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 202:",
          "text": "[H]e stormed at me all through the lessons in a very violent manner of scolding, [...] I was often tempted to turn tail, but held my ground for all that, and got some profit of my lessons; [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1911 June, Jack London, “Cruising in the Solomons”, in The Cruise of the Snark, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 279:",
          "text": "Morning found us still vainly toiling through the passage. At last, in despair, we turned tail, ran out to sea, and sailed clear round Bassakanna to our objective, Malu.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1945 April 3, Bruce Rae, “Okinawa: The Marines Have Landed”, in New York Times, page 1:",
          "text": "Five of the enemy planes were shot down and the remainder turned tail.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 April 27, Vivienne Walt, “Have Fuel, Will Fight”, in Time:",
          "text": "The men blew up two oil pipelines in eastern Libya near the rebel-held Sarir fields, before turning tail and speeding back west.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee."
      ],
      "id": "en-turn_tail-en-verb-5rtQPw20",
      "links": [
        [
          "running away",
          "run away"
        ],
        [
          "leave",
          "leave"
        ],
        [
          "flee",
          "flee"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-turn tail.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/76/En-au-turn_tail.ogg/En-au-turn_tail.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/En-au-turn_tail.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "turn tail"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "turns tail",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "turning tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "turned tail",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "turned tail",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "turn tail (third-person singular simple present turns tail, present participle turning tail, simple past and past participle turned tail)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1838, Charles Dickens, “Some Particulars Concerning A Lion”, in Mudfog and Other Sketches:",
          "text": "A box-lobby lion or a Regent-street animal . . . will never bite, and, if you offer to attack him manfully, will fairly turn tail and sneak off.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Flight in the Heather: The Heugh of Corrynakiegh”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 202:",
          "text": "[H]e stormed at me all through the lessons in a very violent manner of scolding, [...] I was often tempted to turn tail, but held my ground for all that, and got some profit of my lessons; [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1911 June, Jack London, “Cruising in the Solomons”, in The Cruise of the Snark, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 279:",
          "text": "Morning found us still vainly toiling through the passage. At last, in despair, we turned tail, ran out to sea, and sailed clear round Bassakanna to our objective, Malu.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1945 April 3, Bruce Rae, “Okinawa: The Marines Have Landed”, in New York Times, page 1:",
          "text": "Five of the enemy planes were shot down and the remainder turned tail.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 April 27, Vivienne Walt, “Have Fuel, Will Fight”, in Time:",
          "text": "The men blew up two oil pipelines in eastern Libya near the rebel-held Sarir fields, before turning tail and speeding back west.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "running away",
          "run away"
        ],
        [
          "leave",
          "leave"
        ],
        [
          "flee",
          "flee"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-turn tail.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/76/En-au-turn_tail.ogg/En-au-turn_tail.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/En-au-turn_tail.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "turn tail"
}