The tail of a coat. To sit, etc., on one’s own coat-tail: ‘to live, or to do any thing, at one’s personal expense’ (Jam.). Sc. To drag his coat-tails, so that some one may tread on them (attributed to Irishmen at Donnybrook Fair): to put himself purposely in a position in which some one may intentionally or unintentionally afford a pretext for a quarrel; to provoke attack so as to get up a row.
a. 1600. Poems 16th. Cent., Leg. Bp. St. Andrew’s, 329 (Jam.). Still on his owne cott tail he satt.
1679. Sc. Pasquils (1868), 248. From his coat-tail you’ll claime, boys, Lippies of grace.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xiv. ‘To gang there on ane’s ain coat-tail, is a waste o’ precious time and hard-won siller.’
1837. Dickens, Pickw., i. The eloquent Pickwick, with one hand gracefully concealed behind his coat tails.
