Expressions with the word TAIL

If you don't know what a tail is, a tail is what the dog is chasing on the picture above. I got some expressions with that word. Expressions that may integrate our own vocabulary in Portuguese language. And just like Portuguese, English seems to make pretty good use of that word. Let's get to the expressions!

I'm in the middle of writing my final papers for college. If you've ever been where I am, you know what I mean. Sometimes you get one of those writer's blocks that are pretty hard to get over. I remember I was once chasing my tail all morning one day just trying to make it to the second paragraph. That was when it hit me I needed more reading to get me going. But wait, What do I mean by chasing my tail?

I don't mean it literally. At least I haven't noticed any tail back there to this point. When you chase your tail, it means you're very busy doing a lot of things or something really difficult, but achieving very little. We must all agree dogs chasing their own tails the whole day isn't the perfect idea of how to waste your time wisely.

Moving on to the second expression, here's what we have: can't make head or tail of something. What does that mean? Imagine you go to the movies with a friend that keeps poking you the entire movie for explanations. At the end of the movie, when you think he must have understood most part of the movie, here's what he says: I couldn't get head nor tail of that movie. What does its message say? I just can't make head nor tail of it.

It's no surprise what he means by that. When you can't make head nor tail of something, like a movie of a Math class for example, it means you can't understand it by any means. Don't worry about that origin of that expression for now. That's all for today guys. Take care!