Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
tailwater

tailwater

1 7.4
Water in a river below a dam
  • noun
  • Specialized
: agua de cola
  • Four water-filled rubber dams that stair-step in height from tailwater to headwater elevations would be used.
  • tailwater below a dam
  • tailwater fishery
  • trout are in tailwater

Examples

  • PHOTO (COLOR): Four water-filled rubber dams that stair-step in height from tailwater to headwater elevations would be used to enable migratory fish passage.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The Smith is a tailwater fishery that extends 20 miles from Philpott Dam downstream to Kohler.

  • Last winter, a friend and I were fishing the Farmington River, a tailwater in central Connecticut.

  • Saugeye fishing in the tailwater can be good after high water releases.

Synonyms

tailrace
vstailwater
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A channel that carries water away from a mill or turbine after it passes through

is the actual river water just downstream of hydraulic structure rather than the channel

Surface Forms

tailwater singular
tailwaters plural

Morphology

tailwater = tail + water (semi-transparent) = tail + water

The components 'tail' + 'water' are clear, but the precise technical sense 'water immediately downstream from a dam' is specialized and not obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Tailwater is a simple compound of tail ('end' or 'back') and water, and it means the water just below a dam or other river structure. Think of the dam as the river's body and the tail as its 'end', so tailwater is the downstream water that follows the dam.