coat-tail

coat-tail (plural coat-tails)

1. Alternative form of coattail.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “In the Office”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 45:

     At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly—the only lavishment of which he was ever guilty—on the floor.

   • 1909, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “Finer Details”, in The Man in Lower Ten, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 345:

     He paced the floor uneasily, his hands under his coat-tails.

   • 1968, Grace Livingston Hill, The Best Man, page 58:

     He could merely urge his heavy bulk onward toward the fast fleeing train; and dashed up the platform, overcoat streaming from his arm, coat-tails flying, hat crushed down upon his head, his fat, bechalked legs rumbling heavily after him.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     He loved Rick and gave the best years of his life, now to roistering with him, now to hanging on to his coat-tails.

   • 2012 October 6, “The Senate: Not so flippable”, in The Economist‎, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2012-10-04:

     Mr Obama’s coat-tails may help lift Wall-Street-basher Elizabeth Warren past pickup-driving Everyman and one-time nude pin-up Scott Brown in Massachusetts, despite Ms Warren’s inability to substantiate her claim that she has native American forebears.