coattail

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coat·tail

(kōt′tāl′)

1. The loose back part of a coat that hangs below the waist.

2. coattails The skirts of a formal or dress coat.

Idiom:

on the coattails of

1. As a result of the success of another: elected to office on the coattails of a popular governor.

2. Immediately following or as a direct result of: resigned on the coattails of the scandal.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

coat•tail

(ˈkoʊtˌteɪl)

n.

1. the back of the skirt on a man's coat or jacket.

2. one of the two tails on a tail coat.

adj.

3. gained by association with another: coattail benefits.

Idioms:

1. on someone's coattails, aided by association with another person: The senator rode into office on the President's coattails.

2. on the coattails of, immediately after or as a direct result of.

[1590–1600]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

coattail - the loose back flap of a coat that hangs below the waist

coat - an outer garment that has sleeves and covers the body from shoulder down; worn outdoors

flap - any broad thin and limber covering attached at one edge; hangs loose or projects freely; "he wrote on the flap of the envelope"

References in classic literature ?

Your excellency won't be disturbed here," said a particularly pertinacious, white-headed old Tatar with immense hips and coattails gaping widely behind.

And the Tatar ran off with flying coattails, and in five minutes darted in with a dish of opened oysters on mother-of-pearl shells, and a bottle between his fingers.

View in context

It was November, and my guardian was standing before his fire leaning his back against the chimney-piece, with his hands under his coattails.

View in context

He ran, he flew, he pranced, his face glowed, his bald head shown, his coattails waved wildly, his pumps actually twinkled in the air, and when the music stopped, he wiped the drops from his brow, and beamed upon his fellow men like a French Pickwick without glasses.

View in context

Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails in our own day -- an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward.

View in context

They were worried, in the traditional way, about the coattail effect of the candidates at the top.

Analysis: The most important 2018 candidate isn't on the ballot

CHRIS SHIFLETT & The Dead Peasants (RCA) HIS day job bandmates are off doing their own thing, Dave Grohl with Them Crooked Vultures, and Taylor Hawkins with his Coattail Riders.

CHRIS SHIFLETT & The Dead [...]

dusk I lay my shotgun down On her back porch Lift her coattail and push

Ark of Aphrodite con carne

When one adds all gubernatorial races to the analysis, as we do in Figures 1 and 2, (20) backlash against the President's party in state races during a President's term is actually stronger overall than the coattail effect in the presidential election year.

The President: lightning rod or king?

"God should have pulled my coattail then and there: 'Enjoy this while you can, honey, because Satan beat me in a poker game last night, and he's claiming you and yours sometime soon.'" In the entertaining tale of BOSS LADY (Simon & Schuster, $21.95), Omar Tyree returns to pick up the story of Tracy Ellison.