coat-trailingn.
Provocation; deliberately provocative conduct.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > dissent > quarrel or quarrelling > [noun] > picking quarrels > provocation
tail-twisting1887
coat-trailing1927
1927 Observer 19 June 15/7 There is no touch of coat-trailing..about the claim of St. Peter's, York, to be ‘the fourth oldest of our public schools’.
1963 Ann. Reg. 1962 452 There were moments of farce, exhibitionism, self-advertisement, coat-trailing, and invective.
Derivatives
coat-trailer n. one who acts thus.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > dissent > quarrel or quarrelling > [noun] > picking quarrels > provocation > one who
coat-trailer1942
1942 V. S. Pritchett in Penguin New Writing 15 21 The others sorted themselves out into types: the good fellow, the wind-bag, the coat-trailer.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
coat-trailingadj.
Provoking.
ΚΠ
1959 Listener 5 Mar. 428/3 One of those coat-trailing,..off-the-cuff interviews this programme specializes in.
1962 Times 17 Jan. 13/7 Mr. Muggeridge's commentary, as well as being less deliberately coat-trailing than sometimes hitherto.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1927adj.1959