piggyback: Meaning and Definition of
pig•gy•back
Pronunciation: (pig'ē-bak"), [key]
— adv.
- on the back or shoulders: The little girl rode piggyback on her father.
—adj.
- astride the back or shoulders: a piggyback ride.
- sharing commercial time, space, etc.: piggyback advertising.
- carryable or attachable: a piggyback turbine unit.
- added or tacked on; supplementary: a piggyback clause.
- noting or pertaining to the carrying of one vehicle or the like by another, as the carrying of loaded truck trailers on flatcars.
—v.t.
- to attach or ally to as or as if a part of the same thing: to piggyback human rights agreements with foreign aid.
- to carry (somebody) on the back or shoulders.
- to carry (truck trailers) by railroad on flatcars.
- to advertise (two or more products) in the same commercial.
—v.i.
- to be transported aboard or atop another carrier: The space shuttle piggybacked on the airplane.
- to use, appropriate, or exploit the availability, services, or facilities of another: private clinics piggybacking on federal health-care facilities.
- to carry truck trailers by railroad on flatcars.
—n.
- a house trailer designed to fit over a pickup truck.
- a truck trailer carried on a flatcar.
- anything that operates in connection with or as part of another.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.