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Dovetail   /dˈəvtˌeɪl/   Listen
noun
Dovetail  n.  (Carp.) A flaring tenon, or tongue (shaped like a bird's tail spread), and a mortise, or socket, into which it fits tightly, making an interlocking joint between two pieces which resists pulling a part in all directions except one.
Dovetail molding (Arch.), a molding of any convex section arranged in a sort of zigzag, like a series of dovetails.
Dovetail saw (Carp.), a saw used in dovetailing.



verb
Dovetail  v. t.  (past & past part. dovetailed; pres. part. dovetailing)  
1.
(Carp.)
(a)
To cut to a dovetail.
(b)
To join by means of dovetails.
2.
To fit in or connect strongly, skillfully, or nicely; to fit ingeniously or complexly. "He put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed... that it was indeed a very curious show."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Dovetail" Quotes from Famous Books



... down: "Wagner has something singularly attractive to me, and if we both have asperities, those asperities dovetail into ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

... facts themselves, but can only be regarded as invested with greater or less probability. If it is found that these theories do explain many observed facts, that they harmonize with, and as it were dovetail into any proposed interpretation of which the words of Moses are capable; and still more if that interpretation actually completes the defective points of the theories, and supplies an adequate cause for facts ...
— The Story of Creation as told by Theology and by Science • T. S. Ackland

... somewhere in the house a clock struck the hour. Five o'clock! He raised his head. YES! It could be done! There was a way! He had the germ of it now. And now the plan began to grow, to take form and shape in his mind, to dovetail, to knit the integral parts into a comprehensive whole. There was a way—but he must have assistance. Jason—yes, assuredly. Benson, his chauffeur—yes, equally as trustworthy as Jason. Benson was devoted to him; and moreover Benson was young, alert, daring, cool. He ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

... occipital plate of the head; and, as it had to form at once the bond of connection between the cerebral armature of the creature and its cuirass, and to complete the arch formed by the strengthening belt or rib of the latter, it curiously combined the principle of both the dovetail of the carpenter and the keystone of the mason. Viewed from above, it was a dovetail, forming a strong attachment of the head to the body; viewed in the transverse section, it was an efficient keystone, that gave ...
— The Testimony of the Rocks - or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed • Hugh Miller

... "Lakers" I refer, of course, to the primitive people of the region, and not to half-breed incomers from Manitoba or elsewhere. There were a few patriarchal families into which all the others seemed to dovetail in some shape or form. The Nooskeyah family was one of these, also the Gladu, the Cowitoreille, [A corruption, no doubt, of "Courtoreille."] and the Calahaisen. The collateral branches of these families constituted ...
— Through the Mackenzie Basin - A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition of 1899 • Charles Mair


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