Definition of "turn tail" [turn tail]

• To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee. (verb)

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• ""You expect me to turn tail because of a cutpurse?""
• "I felt a strong primitive impulse to turn tail and run, and wished afterwards that I'd listened to the wisdom of pre-history, but somehow one doesn't easily equate knobbly-kneed hikers with positive danger."
• "The wolfhound was the first to turn tail and skulk away into the dark, the Yorkie with the blue bow the last, but they all went."