🐾 A short tail ✂️ Having short tail 🐶 A sheepdog

bobtail

7.4

A large shaggy sheepdog with a short tail and grey and white fur

noun
/ˈbɑːbˌteɪl/

: perro bobtail

At the dog show, the judge admired the bobtail's shaggy bluish-grey fur.

Examples

The bobtail was playing with its owner in the sunny backyard.
Despite its fluffy coat, the bobtail was easily identifiable due to its short tail.
Persian Munchkin, American Bobtail, British Shorthair, Bengal, Maine Coon, Obsenian.

Synonyms

sheepdog

vsbobtail

13 2.1

A dog trained to move and protect sheep on a farm

is a specific large shaggy blue grey and white herding type with short tail

Old English sheepdog

vsbobtail

1 5.3

A large strong dog with a long shaggy grey and white coat used for herding sheep

is a common name used especially for this specific herding breed

Idioms

ragtag and bobtail

Offensive

9.9

A mixed group of ordinary people who seem unimportant

Surface Forms

bobtail singular

bobtails plural

Morphology

bobtail = bob + tail (transparent) = bob + tail

The breed/name originally denotes a dog with a bobbed (short) tail; the formation is directly compositional even if the term is lexicalized as a breed name.

Etymology

Bobtail for the dog comes from the same idea: bob ('short') plus tail, because the Old English Sheepdog and similar dogs have a short or docked tail. That's why such a dog is called a bobtail.