mare's tail
- noun
:
cola de yegua
- The artist painted mare's tail clouds stretching across the blue morning sky.
Examples
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Sailors often say that a mare's tail signals an approaching change in weather.
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Look at that stunning mare's tail cloud formation!
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High in the sky, a single mare's tail drifted gracefully in the afternoon sunlight.
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The sky was filled with a beautiful mare's tail cloud.
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The sunset was beautiful, with mare's tail clouds drifting across the horizon.
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As I looked up, I noticed a mare's tail stretching across the sky, its delicate wisps catching the light.
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The weather forecast predicted clear skies, but I could see mare's tail clouds forming, signaling a change ahead.
Synonyms
2
7.0
A thin wispy white cloud that forms high in the sky
1
3.8
A thin, high cloud made of tiny bits of ice that looks like white streaks in the sky
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
mare's + tail
The phrase is a straightforward possessive noun phrase likening the cloud's shape to the tail of a mare, so a learner who knows 'mare' (female horse) and 'tail' can infer it denotes a long, tail-like cloud. This kind of visual metaphor is transparent and common across languages, making the meaning predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Mare's tail comes from people who thought the long, thin clouds looked like a mare's tail, with wispy strands trailing behind. Sailors often saw these clouds before the weather changed, so the name now means 'a long, narrow, wispy cloud' that can warn of a coming change in the weather.