tailrace

noun

tail·​race ˈtāl-ˌrās How to pronounce tailrace (audio)
: a race for conveying water away from a point of industrial application (such as a waterwheel or turbine) after use

Examples of tailrace in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The tailrace is scheduled to receive more than 20,000 trout spanning 11 stockings this season, most scheduled after Christmas. Matt Williams, Dallas News, 23 Dec. 2022 The Canyon Lake tailrace is the oldest of all the stocking sites. Matt Williams, Dallas News, 23 Dec. 2022 Then there’s the marvel that is the tailrace tunnel (the channel that discharged the tailwater back to the river), built in the early 1900s with little more than pickaxes, shovels and rudimentary dynamite. Laura Randall, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2022 The Watauga River in Elizabethton and the South Holston River in Bluff City offer excellent tailrace fishing, which involves angling just below natural or man-made dams. Neil Norman, Outside Online, 12 Aug. 2020 Actually, the tailrace of all of the TVA dams in Alabama—Guntersville, Wheeler and Wilson—are productive smallmouth fisheries. Frank Sargeant, al, 7 Nov. 2021 Anglers also can find excellent tailrace fishing opportunities at the Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake and the Brazos River below Possum Kingdom. Matt Williams, Dallas News, 18 Dec. 2020 There are plenty of catfish to be caught in the tailrace. Frank Sargeant, al, 4 Oct. 2019 The river directly below is known as the tailrace, a foamy, rough pool filled with mesmerizing ripples. Sallie Tisdale, Harper's magazine, 10 June 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tailrace.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1776, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tailrace was in 1776

Dictionary Entries Near tailrace

Cite this Entry

“Tailrace.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tailrace. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.

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