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Glite Dictionary
to ride on someone's coattail

to ride on someone's coattail

6.9
Use another person's success to get benefits without much effort
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : aprovecharse del éxito de alguien
  • Many people ride on the coattail of celebrities to gain fame.

Examples

  • Don't ride on my coattail if you want to succeed!

  • The band enjoyed fame for years by riding on the coattails of their popular lead singer.

  • Many people believed the politician had simply ridden on his predecessor's coattails to win the election.

  • Rather than working hard himself, he tried to ride on his teammate's coattails to get a promotion.

  • After her success on the show, many new artists tried to ride on her coattails to gain exposure.

  • He was criticized for wanting to ride on his father's coattails instead of building his own career.

  • It’s common for politicians to ride on the coattails of popular leaders to win votes.

Synonyms

hitch one's wagon to
vsto ride on someone's coattail
  • Informal
1 7.4

To join a successful person or group to gain advantage

is more about gaining advantage passively rather than actively aligning
on one's coattails
vsto ride on someone's coattail
  • Informal
1 7.4

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

focuses on gaining from another's influence rather than personal effort
on the coattails of
vsto ride on someone's coattail
7.1

Getting success because someone more successful already did the work

has identical meaning but is a different phrasing of the same idea
on the coattails
vsto ride on someone's coattail
7.7

Get success without earning it because someone more famous helped you

emphasises immediate gain instead of earning success through work
to ride on the back of
vsto ride on someone's coattail
5.4

To use past success to help you now

focuses on relying on earlier results rather than personal effort
to stand on someone's shoulders
vsto ride on someone's coattail
  • Formal
5.4

Use other people's ideas or work to move forward

highlights opportunistic gain rather than advancing on past work

Antonyms

self-made
21 4.1

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

How Dependent

to leech off
  • Offensive
4 7.9
to ride on someone's coattail
  • Informal
6.9

Surface Forms

ride on someone's coattail infinitive
rode on someone's coattail past
ridden on someone's coattail past participle
riding on someone's coattail present participle
rides on someone's coattail third person singular

Morphology

ride + on + someone's + coattail

The phrase builds on a clear physical image — being carried by someone’s coattails — so a learner who knows 'ride' and 'coattail' can likely infer the idea of benefiting from another person’s success. However, the meaning is metaphorical and conventionalized (passively gaining advantage rather than literally riding), so the exact pragmatic nuance is not fully predictable without exposure.

Etymology

Ride on someone's coattail comes from a simple image: old coats had long coattails that someone could grab to be pulled along. So, to 'ride on someone's coattail' now means 'to achieve success by using someone else's influence'.