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Glite Dictionary
on the coattails of

on the coattails of

7.1
Getting success because someone more successful already did the work
  • idiom
translation icon : a la sombra de
  • The candidate managed to win the election on the coattails of the popular governor, who endorsed him.

Examples

  • My fear is that Martin Howrylak will get into office on the coattails of Romney's projected win.

    Blog text (17)

  • The most unfortunate thing here is that Marvel chose to go the lazy route, thinking that a new non-white character couldn't find lasting popularity unless he rode in on the coattails of already established popularity and dressed in "white man's clothes," and I'm a white man.

    Blog text (33)

  • Many startups thrive on the coattails of successful tech giants, leveraging their popularity to gain visibility.

  • Several new artists have found recognition on the coattails of the recent music festival's success.

Synonyms

on one's coattails
vson the coattails of
  • Informal
1 7.4

Gain an advantage from someone else's success without doing much work

focuses on gaining advantage rather than general benefiting from influence
to ride on someone's coattail
vson the coattails of
  • Informal
6.9

Use another person's success to get benefits without much effort

is the same idea but phrased differently
on the coattails
vson the coattails of
7.7

Get success without earning it because someone more famous helped you

is broader, meaning benefit from influence not only immediately
to ride on the back of
vson the coattails of
5.4

To use past success to help you now

is specific to benefiting from a person's influence, not any event
to stand on someone's shoulders
vson the coattails of
  • Formal
5.4

Use other people's ideas or work to move forward

is about gaining advantage with little effort rather than building on work

How Dependent

on the coattails of
7.1
affected
3.6
independent
984 2.3

Surface Forms

on the coattails of main

Morphology

on + the + coattails + of

The sense 'benefiting from the success of another' cannot be derived from the literal parts: 'on' + 'the' + 'coattails' + 'of' — 'coattails' literally refers to the tails of a coat and the figurative meaning ('riding on someone's coattails') is a metaphorical, lexicalized idiom. This semantic shift is language-specific and unpredictable, so a B1 learner who only knows the literal constituent meanings would not reliably infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The idiom on the coattails of comes from the image of someone holding onto another person's coattails, the long back parts of a coat, and being pulled along. So, saying someone rose on the coattails of a leader means they 'benefited from someone else's success' rather than from their own work.