Word.ws English Dictionary

riding the coattails

riding the coattails is the present participle and gerund of ride the coattails.

Meaning of ride the coattails

Verb

ride the coattails (third-person singular simple present rides the coattails, present participle riding the coattails, simple past rode the coattails, past participle ridden the coattails)

  1. (idiomatic) To succeed by virtue of association (with).
    • Further, some investors ride the coattails of investor giants, such as Warren Buffett, meaning they would frequently invest in the stocks Buffet invested in.2010, Robin Speziale, Lessons from the Successful Investor, page 53

Questions about riding the coattails

What is riding the coattails the present participle and gerund of?
Riding the coattails is the present participle and gerund of ride the coattails.

Words near riding the coattails in the dictionary

  1. riding the bench
  2. riding the boards
  3. riding the brakes
  4. riding the clock
  5. riding the clutch
  6. riding the coattails
  7. riding the cock carousel
  8. riding the cotton bicycle
  9. riding the cotton horse
  10. riding the cotton pony
  11. riding the crest of the wave

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: riding the coattails (page history and authors); ride the coattails (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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