noun A hinged board or hatch at the rear of a vehicle that can be lowered for loading and unloading.
Drop the tailgate, please, and I'll load these pallets.
noun The hinged rear door of a hatchback.
Open up the tailgate, please, and retrieve her suitcases.
noun The downstream gate in the lock on a canal or river, or in an irrigation system.
The locktender closed the tailgate and the chamber started to fill.
noun Ellipsis of tailgate party.
Are you coming to the tailgate? We'll be grilling brisket.
noun A tunnel for drawing spent air away from the working face of a mine.
verb To drive dangerously close behind another vehicle.
If that idiot keeps tailgating our car they'll end up rear-endeding us.
verb To follow another person through access control on their access, rather than on one’s own credentials, especially when entering a door controlled by a card reader.
verb To privately purchase or sell a security immediately after trading in the same security for a client.