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Glite Dictionary
on one's coattails

on one's coattails

1 7.4
Gain an advantage from someone else's success without doing much work
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : a la sombra de
  • What the hell; at least she got me into Wikipedia on her coattails.
  • ride on one's coattails

Examples

  • Although he rarely contributed, he enjoyed the perks of the project by riding on her coattails.

  • Many students benefit from the famous professor's reputation, often succeeding while riding on his coattails.

  • You were so eager to jump on my coattails.

    Flatliners (1990)

  • But the only reason Dirty Harry was there was so Mitt Romney, king of the artless nimrods, could hitch a ride to the White House on his coattails.

    Blog text (27)

  • She managed to secure the promotion by hanging on the coattails of her successful colleague.

Synonyms

on the coattails
vson one's coattails
7.7

Get success without earning it because someone more famous helped you

is used for close following or gaining advantage, not only immediate benefit
on the coattails of
vson one's coattails
7.1

Getting success because someone more successful already did the work

focuses more on gaining advantage by proximity or luck rather than effort

Antonyms

independent
984 2.3

Not controlled by others

self-made
21 4.1

Someone who achieves success by their own hard work, not by family help

How Dependent

parasitic
  • Offensive
11 6.6
on one's coattails
  • Informal
1 7.4
to live off
77 3.9
self-made
21 4.1

Surface Forms

on one's coattails positive

Morphology

on + one + coattails

Given that a learner knows the constituents 'on' (location/participation), 'one's' (possessive), and 'coattails' (advantage obtained by association), the idiomatic sense is directly inferable: being 'on someone's coattails' means riding or benefiting from their success. Although metaphorical, the spatial/compositional logic is transparent and maps clearly onto the intended meaning, so a B1 learner who knows the parts should comprehend it.

Etymology

The idiom on one's coattails comes from the image of someone walking right behind a powerful person and holding the long back part of their coat, the coattails. If you held on to those coattails, you would be pulled along or noticed because of the other person's success, so today it means 'to follow closely or gain advantage from someone else'.