Added to
Favorites
Sign Up
Log In
Introducing a cool
new way to learn!
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Word Dynamo
Quotes
Reference
Translator
Spanish
Related Searches
On one's coattail...
Tail coat
Coattails in poli...
Coattails effect
25th amendment
White house offic...
Rule of propinqui...
Presidential succ...
Nearby Words
coated vesicle
coated-pit
coated-vesicle
coatee
coatesville
coati
coati mondi
coati mundi
coati-mondi
coati-mundi
coatimondi
coatimundi
coatless
coatrack
coatroom
coats disease
coats land
coats made of s...
coats's disease
coatsworth
coattail
coattail effect
coattails effec...
coattrailing
coatzacoalcos
coauthor
coax
coax cable
coaxal
coaxation
coaxial
coaxial cable
coaxial-cable
cob
cob bled
cob bling
cob coal
cob den
cob money
cob nut
cob pie
Coattails
[
koht
-teyl
]
Origin
coat·tail
/
ˈkoʊtˌteɪl
/
Show Spelled
[
koht
-teyl
]
Show IPA
noun
1.
the back of the skirt on a man's
coat
or jacket.
2.
one of the two back parts of the skirt of a
coat
,
especially one of the
tails
on a
tail coat
.
adjective
3.
gained by association with another, especially with a successful or celebrated person:
coattail benefits.
:10
:09
:08
:07
:06
:05
:04
:03
:02
:01
Coattails
is always a great word to know.
So is
slumgullion
. Does it mean:
So is
bezoar
. Does it mean:
So is
ort
. Does it mean:
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
Idioms
4.
on someone's coattails,
aided by association with another person:
The senator rode into office on the President's coattails.
5.
on the coattails of,
immediately after or as a result of:
His decline in popularity followed on the coattails of the scandal.
Origin:
1590–1600;
coat
+
tail
1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
|
Link To
Coattails
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
coattails
c.1600, from
coat
+
tail
. In 17c., to do something on one's own coattail meant "at one's own expense. Meaning "power of one person," especially in politics, is from 1848 (in a Congressional speech by Abraham Lincoln, in reference to Andrew Jackson);
EXPAND
expression riding (someone's) coattails into political office is from 1949.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases
coattails
see
on someone's coattails
.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com
Searching for
Coattails
?
How many words do you actually know?
FIND OUT
Idioms & Phrases
on someone's coattails
MORE
Matching Quote
"When we think back to our forefathers, with their sedentary lives of forest-chopping, railroad-building, fortune-founding, their fox-hunting and Indian taming, their prancing about in the mazurka and the polka, with their coattails flying and their bustles bouncing, to say nothing of their all-day sessions with the port and straight bourbon,... we must realize that we are a nation, not of neurasthenics, but of sissies and slow-motion sports."
-Robert Benchley
MORE
Partners:
Word
Bloglines
Citysearch
The Daily Beast
Ask Answers
Ask Kids
Life123
Sendori
Thesaurus
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright ©
2012
. All rights reserved.
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
API
Careers
Advertise with Us
Contact Us
Help
Please
Login
or
Sign Up
to use the Favorites feature
Please
Login
or
Sign Up
to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT
How many words do you know?
FIND OUT