Word.ws English Dictionary

coat-tail

coat-tail is the alternative form of coattail.

Meaning of coattail

Noun

coattail (plural coattails)

  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.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
  2. (figuratively, plural-normally) Success of a figure, organization or movement that transfers to those who associate with it.
    • to ride the coattails

See all 3 meanings of coattail

Forms of coat-tail

Noun
pluralcoat-tails
Verb
third-person singular presentcoat-tails
present participlecoat-tailing
past participlecoat-tailed
pastcoat-tailed

Questions about coat-tail

What is coat-tail the alternative form of?
Coat-tail is the alternative form of coattail.

Words near coat-tail in the dictionary

  1. coat-hangers
  2. coat-rack
  3. coat-racks
  4. coat-stand
  5. coat-stands
  6. coat-tail
  7. coat-tailed
  8. coat-tailing
  9. coat-tails
  10. coat-trailing
  11. coat-trailings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coat-tail (page history and authors); coattail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “coat-tail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coat-tail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.