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Idiom: Tail between your legs
We are in the dog days of summer, so I should introduce the idiom tail between your legs.
The phrase’s origin comes from how dogs communicate their emotions through their tails.
When a dog is happy and confident, its tail is wagging and held high.
However, when a dog is scared or submissive, its tail is tucked between its legs.
In human terms, having your tail between your legs means feeling defeated or humiliated.
This could be due to a mistake you made, a failure you experienced, or a situation that did not go as planned.
It is a way to express that you are feeling small and powerless.
One real-life example of the usage of this term could be after a job interview gone wrong.
You may leave the interview feeling embarrassed and disappointed in yourself.
In other words, you walk out of there with your tail between your legs.
This implies that you felt defeated and were not confident in your performance.
Another example could be after a sports team loses a game.
The coach might tell the players, “Don’t walk off that field with your tails between your legs. We’ll come back stronger next time.”
This shows that the coach wants the players to keep their heads held high and not feel defeated by the loss because they did their best and have nothing to feel ashamed about.
The term tail between your legs is a way to describe the feeling of shame or defeat.
It is commonly used in situations where someone has experienced failure or embarrassment.
In addition, if you are not a dog person, you may better understand your neighbour’s dog.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 75.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.