swallow-tailed coat
- noun
:
chaqueta de cola de golondrina
- He looked very distinguished in his swallow-tailed coat at the gala.
Examples
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In the nineteenth century, no gentleman attended the ball without a swallow-tailed coat.
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He wore a swallow-tailed coat to the gala.
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The orchestra conductor wore a classic swallow-tailed coat during the evening performance.
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Is that a swallow-tailed coat you have on?
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For the wedding, he wore a classic swallow-tailed coat that made him look exceptionally dapper.
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The actor arrived at the premiere in a stylish swallow-tailed coat, impressing everyone on the red carpet.
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At the formal gala, the guests admired the rich fabric of his swallow-tailed coat with its elegant tails.
Synonyms
2
8.2
A very formal men's suit with a coat that has a long back worn at special events
1
6.8
A formal coat with a short front and long tails at the back worn for evening events
1
8.8
A formal men's coat short at the front with long tails at the back
1
8.5
A man's formal jacket with long tails and a front cut away worn for daytime events
1
8.6
A formal men's jacket with long, narrow tails at the back
A formal evening jacket for men with a short front and long tails at the back
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'swallow-tailed' means having a tail like a swallow and 'coat' is an outer garment, so a learner can infer it is a coat with tapering tail(s) at the back. This straightforward descriptive pattern is cross-linguistically common for garment names, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily understand the meaning.
Etymology
Swallow-tailed coat gets its name from the coat's back shape: it has two long, pointed tails that look like the forked tail of a swallow. So the name simply describes 'a formal jacket' with long tails and explains why it is worn for dressy occasions.