tête à queue
French, phrase
tête à queue is spelled T-Ê-T-E-À-Q-U-E-U-E (10 letters). Tête à queue is a French phrase meaning “Signifying the reversal of order, where the head becomes the tail and the tail becomes the head, such as in a file, battle line, army…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, tête-à-queue is a different word: “a spin, an instance of spinning round”.
What does tête à queue mean in English?
phrase
- 1
Signifying the reversal of order, where the head becomes the tail and the tail becomes the head, such as in a file, battle line, army column. Expression specifically used for horses and cars.
noun
- 1
a spin, an instance of spinning round
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Mouvement d’un quadrupède qui pivote brusquement sur lui-même et fait demi-tour. 2. Mouvement d’un véhicule qui, généralement à la suite d’un dérapage, se retrouve orienté en sens contraire de son sens de déplacement. 3. Retournement, complet et soudain, de situation ou de position.
adverb: 1. D’un bout à l’autre.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tête à queue
- tête-à-queue m Literally canonical
- “head-to-tail” canonical
- tête-à-queues plural
- de tête à queue
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).