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on someone's coattails



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Idioms and Phrases

Also, on the coattails of . Owing to another person's popularity or merits. For example, He won the cabinet post by hanging on the senator's coattails , or He was elected to office on the coattails of the governor . This expression, with its graphic image, dates from the mid-1800s, when coats with tails were in fashion.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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