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coat-tail. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
coat-tail, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
Noun
coat-tail (plural coat-tails)
- Alternative form of coattail.
1892, Walter Besant, “In the Office”, in The Ivory Gate , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC, page 45: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—the only lavishment of which he was ever guilty—on the floor.
1968, Grace Livingston Hill, The Best Man, page 58:He could merely urge his heavy bulk onward toward the fast fleeing train; and dashed up the platform, overcoat streaming from his arm, coat-tails flying, hat crushed down upon his head, his fat, bechalked legs rumbling heavily after him.
1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:He loved Rick and gave the best years of his life, now to roistering with him, now to hanging on to his coat-tails.
2012 October 6, “The Senate: Not so flippable”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 October 2012:Mr Obama’s coat-tails may help lift Wall-Street-basher Elizabeth Warren past pickup-driving Everyman and one-time nude pin-up Scott Brown in Massachusetts, despite Ms Warren’s inability to substantiate her claim that she has native American forebears.
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