Coattail
noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The flap at the back of a coat that hangs down, sometimes below the waist.
"At twilight in the summer[…]the mice come out. They[…]eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly[…]on the floor."
- 2 the loose back flap of a coat that hangs below the waist wordnet
- 3 Success of a figure, organization or movement that transfers to those who associate with it. figuratively, plural-normally
"to ride the coattails"
- 1 To ride the coattails of. ambitransitive
"It wasn't like I just coattailed the auditor's work. Based on the names on the time cards, I was able to conduct interviews with the employees whose labor was mischarged, and they told me which contracts they had actually worked on."
Example
More examples"At twilight in the summer[…]the mice come out. They[…]eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly[…]on the floor."
Etymology
From coat + tail.
Related phrases
More for "coattail"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.