Word.ws English Dictionary

tailgated

tailgated is the simple past and past participle of tailgate.

Meaning of tailgate

Verb

tailgate (third-person singular simple present tailgates, present participle tailgating, simple past and past participle tailgated)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To drive dangerously close behind another vehicle.
    • That idiot has been tailgating me for the last five minutes.
  2. To follow another person through access control on their access, rather than on one’s own credentials, especially when entering a door controlled by a card reader.
    • An email circulated to ABC employees says Gallagher is believed to have tailgated staff walking through the building’s high-security doors.2018 September 10, “ABC tightens Sydney security after man allegedly infiltrates building and assaults employee”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2021
    Synonyms:
    piggyback, draft
  3. To privately purchase or sell a security immediately after trading in the same security for a client.
  4. (US, intransitive) To participate in a tailgate party.
    • “Hey, what are you guys doing?” “Dude, we're gonna tailgate the tryouts.” “Oh, shit. That's a good idea. Oh, you gonna bust out Green Man, bro?” “No. No Green Man.” “What's Green Man?” “Well, in high school, Charlie was like our school mascot.” “A mascot nobody wanted. He'd get wasted and dress in...2007 September 13, Charlie Day & David Hornsby & Glenn Howerton, “The Gang Gets Invincible” (3:56 from the start), in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Charlie Kelly...

See all 9 meanings of tailgate

Questions about tailgated

What is tailgated the simple past and past participle of?
Tailgated is the simple past and past participle of tailgate.

Words near tailgated in the dictionary

  1. tailflowers
  2. tailforemost
  3. tailgate
  4. tailgate parties
  5. tailgate party
  6. tailgated
  7. tailgater
  8. tailgaters
  9. tailgates
  10. tailgating
  11. tailgatings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tailgated (page history and authors); tailgate (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: “tailgated.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tailgated. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.