horsetail

1. (literal) A tail of a horse.

2. (botany) Any of various simple vascular plants, of the order Equisetales, that have hollow stems and produce spores.

3. (military) A Turkish standard denoting rank.Examples: "Commanders were distinguished by the number of horsetails carried before them. The sultan had seven, the grand vizier five, and the pashas three, two, or one."

4. (botany) A mare's tail, a water plant in genus Hippuris.

5. (anatomy) cauda equina, a bundle of nerve fibers.

6. (rare) A ponytail hairstyle.Examples: "They were psychic mediums that wore a horsetail hairstyle. They believed that their long hair acted as cosmic antennae to receive alien communication from beyond."; "The woman was tall and rail-thin, bony across the shoulders and breast, with arms and legs of wire and gristle. A fighter, she wore the traditional haircut, shaved temples, roach of hair tugged back in a horsetail."rare