turn tail

Questions about turn tail

What does turn tail mean?

turn tail means "flee; take to one's heels; cut and run".

What is another word for turn tail?

Close synonyms include scat, run, scarper, lam, run away. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is turn tail a common word?

turn tail is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.