piggyback
piggyback adjective: on somebody's back or shoulders.
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Adjective
piggyback (not comparable)
- On somebody's back or shoulders.
- give someone a piggyback ride
- Pertaining to transportation of goods where one transportation unit is carried on the back of something else. For example, a truck on a train.
- A Montreal-Toronto "Piggyback" freight of the Canadian Pacific.1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 554, photo caption
- What might be termed the psychological break-through for U.S. piggyback came in 1953-54. A prototype 75-foot piggyback flatcar was built, establishing the precedent for today's standard car with a capacity for two road trailers.1960 November, David Morgan, “"Piggyback"—U.S. success story”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 681–682
- Attached or appended to something larger or more important.
- piggyback legislation
Adverb
piggyback (not comparable)
- On somebody's back or shoulders.
- to ride piggyback
- Synonyms:
- pooseback
Verb
piggyback (third-person singular simple present piggybacks, present participle piggybacking, simple past and past participle piggybacked)
- To carry (someone) on the back or shoulders.
- To ride on someone's back or shoulders.
- To attach or append something to another (usually larger) object or event.
- They tried to piggyback that proposal on the rivers and harbors bill.
- The popular host can’t claim credit for the trade, though. The idea wasn’t his. He piggybacked off another successful investor who had a history of picking winners.
- To obtain a wireless internet connection by bringing one's own computer within the range of another's wireless connection without that subscriber's permission or knowledge.
- To utilize "last-mile" wiring rented from a larger owner ISP by a smaller ISP.
- To transport (a lorry/truck) on a flatbed railway wagon.
- American railroads are not permitted to operate long-haul road routes, but the I.C.C. decision of 1954 did permit them to solicit trailer business in, say, New York for Chicago provided the trailer was piggybacked in between.1960 November, David Morgan, “"Piggyback"—U.S. success story”, in Trains Illustrated, page 683
- To enter a secured area at the same time along with (someone having authorized access); to tailgate.
- Okay, when someone accesses a door with a card key, anyone additional who comes in with them is piggy-backing on their access, like someone riding piggy-back. Get it?
Noun
piggyback (countable and uncountable, plural piggybacks)
- A ride on somebody's back or shoulders.
- An act or instance of piggybacking.
- The growth is taken for granted; what absorbs Americans today is the implication of piggyback for gross revenues and, more important, net profits.1960 November, David Morgan, “"Piggyback"—U.S. success story”, in Trains Illustrated, page 683
- The GOP had done its homework prior to bargaining for these piggybacks.2000, Craig Allen, Eisenhower and the Mass Media: Peace, Prosperity, and Prime-time TV
- The connection of one intravenous drip to another.
- Piggyback medications are given through a port of an existing intravenous site. […] Calculation of the drip rate for piggybacks is the same as any other drip rate.1989, Alice J. Smith, Dosage and Solutions Calculations: The Dimensional Analysis Way, page 258
- Certain IV drugs, whether given by piggyback or through a metered-dose infusion set, may be incompatible with an existing continuous IV infusion.2009, Diane S. Aschenbrenner, Samantha J. Venable, Drug Therapy in Nursing, page 34
- Synonyms:
- IVPB
piggyback meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Indonesian and Vietnamese
piggyback in Tamil
- piggyback
- உப்புமூட்டை uppumūṭṭai
piggyback in Kannada
- ಕೂಸುಮರಿ, ಉಪ್ಪುಮೂಟೆ, ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯ ಬೆನ್ನು
piggyback in Indonesian
- to carry someone on the back or shoulders
- gendong, menggendong
piggyback in Vietnamese
- to carry someone on the back or shoulders
- cõng
Examples of piggyback in a sentence
- Until this time the railroads had favored piggyback services […]1985, John H. Mahoney, Intermodal Freight Transportation:
- Piggybacking on that last part, the ugly business of the critique.2011 Allen Gregory, "1 Night in Gottlieb" (season 1, episode 2)
- Yet that is exactly what Rossendale Borough Council (RBC) wants to do, by piggybacking onto the preserved railway's operations.2023 March 22, Nick Brodrick, “Back to the future on the East Lancs?”, in RAIL, number 979, page 44:
Synonyms of piggyback
Forms of piggyback
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | piggy-back |
| alternative form | piggy back |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | piggybacks |
| present participle | piggybacking |
| past participle | piggybacked |
| past | piggybacked |
| Noun | |
| plural | piggybacks |
Origin of piggyback
A corruption of pickaback, itself a corruption of pick-pack, like a pack.
Words formed from piggyback
Phrases with piggyback
Questions about piggyback
- What does piggyback mean?
- Piggyback means on somebody's back or shoulders.
- What is piggyback in Tamil?
- Piggyback in Tamil is உப்புமூட்டை (uppumūṭṭai). See Piggyback meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use piggyback in a sentence?
- Until this time the railroads had favored piggyback services […]
- What part of speech is piggyback?
- Piggyback can be an adjective, an adverb, a verb or a noun.
Words near piggyback in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: piggyback (page history and authors); உப்புமூட்டை (Tamil) (page history and authors); piggyback (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-piggyback.wav.
Cite this entry: “piggyback.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/piggyback. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.