shirttail noun6 •The single or split (then rather plural) bottom part of a shirt, below the waist, especially in the back, which, when not tucked into trousers or other vestment, hangs over the wearer's tail-end, like a tail.According to Linder, one of the rituals of the hunt entailed cutting off the shirttail of a hunter who shot at and missed a deer. — 1996 •A tenuous connection.Although consumers' cooperatives have not yet been benefitted, the more they become tied on to the shirttail of the agricultural bloc, the more political power they are going to have. — 1939 •A distant kinship.She belongs to the true sisterhood of the majestic five daughters born to America's inland Neptune, but she always has been regarded as a poor relation, a sort of shirttail cousin, by her big sisters. — 1977 •A small portionI may get a small shirttail of votes, but I don't expect to be elected. — 1980 •Something small and unimportant.He can't get no further behind. He can sholy take care of this little shirttail of a farm while me and you are whupping them Japanese. — 1951 •The tail-end or periphery of something.There was something — did you ever catch hold of the shirttail of a dream and try to pull it back into your consciousness? — 1977 formsshirttails
