COATTAIL Definition & Meaning

coattail

[ koht-teyl ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

the back of the skirt on a man's coat or jacket.
one of the two back parts of the skirt of a coat, especially one of the tails on a tailcoat.

adjective

gained by association with another, especially with a successful or celebrated person:
coattail benefits.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of coattail¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; coat + tail ¹

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Idioms and Phrases

on someone's coattails, aided by association with another person:
The senator rode into office on the president's coattails.
on the coattails of, immediately after or as a result of:
His decline in popularity followed on the coattails of the scandal.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

What this shows is that for all of the GOP's swaggering braggadocio about their alleged landslide, Trump's win was razor thin in Congress, indicating once more that he has no coattails.

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Some Democrats, however, are worried that Harris' money flood is overshadowing tepid fundraising by down-ballot candidates and committees focused on state legislative races, and it's unclear how long her coattails are.

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“The other thing is the resiliency and the availability of the infrastructure. Cloud providers have designed and architected their infrastructure really well. We can ride on the coattails of their innovation.”

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“But somebody’s going to see it as an opportunity, then I’m sure people will follow on their coattails.”

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To get there, Corder says, astronomers want to “ride on the coattails” of quantum technologies developed for other uses.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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