"coattail" meaning in English

See coattail in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: coattails [plural]
Etymology: coat + tail Etymology templates: {{compound|en|coat|tail}} coat + tail Head templates: {{en-noun}} coattail (plural coattails)
  1. The flap at the back of a coat that hangs down, sometimes below the waist. Translations (flap at the back of a coat): frakkeskøde [neuter] (Danish), Schoß [masculine] (German), Frackschoß [masculine] (German), triopall casóige [masculine] (Irish)
    Sense id: en-coattail-en-noun-tbZHTfuJ Disambiguation of 'flap at the back of a coat': 100 0
  2. (usually in the plural, figurative) Success of a figure, organization or movement that transfers to those who associate with it. Tags: figuratively, plural-normally Categories (topical): Clothing Translations (transferred success): slipstrøm [common-gender] (Danish)
    Sense id: en-coattail-en-noun-xFJwfX~n Disambiguation of Clothing: 34 62 4 Disambiguation of 'transferred success': 12 88
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: coat-tail Hypernyms: tail Related terms: on the coattails of, ride the coattails

Verb

Forms: coattails [present, singular, third-person], coattailing [participle, present], coattailed [participle, past], coattailed [past]
Etymology: coat + tail Etymology templates: {{compound|en|coat|tail}} coat + tail Head templates: {{en-verb}} coattail (third-person singular simple present coattails, present participle coattailing, simple past and past participle coattailed)
  1. (transitive, intransitive) To ride the coattails of. Tags: intransitive, transitive
    Sense id: en-coattail-en-verb-fiwNU6VN Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 17 17 66 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 16 30 54
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: coat-tail

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for coattail meaning in English (5.0kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "coat",
        "3": "tail"
      },
      "expansion": "coat + tail",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "coat + tail",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "coattails",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "coattail (plural coattails)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "hypernyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "tail"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "on the coattails of"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "ride the coattails"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The flap at the back of a coat that hangs down, sometimes below the waist."
      ],
      "id": "en-coattail-en-noun-tbZHTfuJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "flap",
          "flap"
        ],
        [
          "coat",
          "coat"
        ],
        [
          "hang",
          "hang"
        ],
        [
          "waist",
          "waist"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "frakkeskøde"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Schoß"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Frackschoß"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "triopall casóige"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "34 62 4",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Clothing",
          "orig": "en:Clothing",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 October 6, “The Senate: Not so flippable”, in The Economist",
          "text": "Mr Obama’s coat-tails may help lift Wall-Street-basher Elizabeth Warren past pickup-driving Everyman and one-time nude pin-up Scott Brown in Massachusetts[…].",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 November 17, Ben Chu, “Review: How to Make the World Add Up, by Tim Harford”, in The Independent, retrieved 2021-01-13",
          "text": "And Harford grabs the coattails of the trend, giving us 10 rules for thinking differently about numbers in the news, ranging from “check your feelings”, to “ponder your personal experience”, to “keep an open mind”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Success of a figure, organization or movement that transfers to those who associate with it."
      ],
      "id": "en-coattail-en-noun-xFJwfX~n",
      "links": [
        [
          "figure",
          "figure"
        ],
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ],
        [
          "movement",
          "movement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(usually in the plural, figurative) Success of a figure, organization or movement that transfers to those who associate with it."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "plural-normally"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "12 88",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "transferred success",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "slipstrøm"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "coat-tail"
    }
  ],
  "word": "coattail"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "coat",
        "3": "tail"
      },
      "expansion": "coat + tail",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "coat + tail",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "coattails",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "coattailing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "coattailed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "coattailed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "coattail (third-person singular simple present coattails, present participle coattailing, simple past and past participle coattailed)",
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    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "17 17 66",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "16 30 54",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2014, Charles E. Piper, Investigator and Fraud Fighter Guidebook: Operation War Stories, page 139",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Paul M. Herr, Frank R. Kardes, Handbook of Consumer Psychology",
          "text": "The first of these is what Holt calls coat-tailing on cultural epicenters. Through coat-tailing, the brand becomes part of a social movement or emergent meaning-making sub-culture such that it stands as a vested community member […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To ride the coattails of."
      ],
      "id": "en-coattail-en-verb-fiwNU6VN",
      "links": [
        [
          "transitive",
          "transitive"
        ],
        [
          "intransitive",
          "intransitive"
        ],
        [
          "ride the coattails",
          "ride the coattails"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, intransitive) To ride the coattails of."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "coat-tail"
    }
  ],
  "word": "coattail"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Clothing"
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  "etymology_templates": [
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    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "coat + tail",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "coattails",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "coattail (plural coattails)",
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      "word": "tail"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
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  "related": [
    {
      "word": "on the coattails of"
    },
    {
      "word": "ride the coattails"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The flap at the back of a coat that hangs down, sometimes below the waist."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "flap",
          "flap"
        ],
        [
          "coat",
          "coat"
        ],
        [
          "hang",
          "hang"
        ],
        [
          "waist",
          "waist"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 October 6, “The Senate: Not so flippable”, in The Economist",
          "text": "Mr Obama’s coat-tails may help lift Wall-Street-basher Elizabeth Warren past pickup-driving Everyman and one-time nude pin-up Scott Brown in Massachusetts[…].",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 November 17, Ben Chu, “Review: How to Make the World Add Up, by Tim Harford”, in The Independent, retrieved 2021-01-13",
          "text": "And Harford grabs the coattails of the trend, giving us 10 rules for thinking differently about numbers in the news, ranging from “check your feelings”, to “ponder your personal experience”, to “keep an open mind”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
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        "Success of a figure, organization or movement that transfers to those who associate with it."
      ],
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        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(usually in the plural, figurative) Success of a figure, organization or movement that transfers to those who associate with it."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "plural-normally"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "coat-tail"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "frakkeskøde"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Schoß"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Frackschoß"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "flap at the back of a coat",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "triopall casóige"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "transferred success",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "slipstrøm"
    }
  ],
  "word": "coattail"
}

{
  "categories": [
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Clothing"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
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        "2": "coat",
        "3": "tail"
      },
      "expansion": "coat + tail",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "coat + tail",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "coattails",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "coattailing",
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        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "coattailed",
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    },
    {
      "form": "coattailed",
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      "args": {},
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2014, Charles E. Piper, Investigator and Fraud Fighter Guidebook: Operation War Stories, page 139",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Paul M. Herr, Frank R. Kardes, Handbook of Consumer Psychology",
          "text": "The first of these is what Holt calls coat-tailing on cultural epicenters. Through coat-tailing, the brand becomes part of a social movement or emergent meaning-making sub-culture such that it stands as a vested community member […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To ride the coattails of."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "transitive",
          "transitive"
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          "intransitive",
          "intransitive"
        ],
        [
          "ride the coattails",
          "ride the coattails"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, intransitive) To ride the coattails of."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "coat-tail"
    }
  ],
  "word": "coattail"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.