ride the coattails
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Benefit from someone else's success or efforts
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
được lợi từ thành công hoặc nỗ lực của người khác
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: ride on the tails of someone's coat
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He rode the coattails of his famous brother to get the job
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “ride the coattails” mean?
Benefit from someone else's success or efforts Literally: ride on the tails of someone's coat
Is “ride the coattails” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.