piggyback

[pig-ee-bak] /ˈpɪg iˌbæk/
adverb
1.
on the back or shoulders:
The little girl rode piggyback on her father.
adjective
2.
astride the back or shoulders:
a piggyback ride.
3.
sharing commercial time, space, etc.:
piggyback advertising.
4.
carryable or attachable:
a piggyback turbine unit.
5.
added or tacked on; supplementary:
a piggyback clause.
6.
noting or pertaining to the carrying of one vehicle or the like by another, as the carrying of loaded truck trailers on flatcars.
verb (used with object)
7.
to attach or ally to as or as if a part of the same thing:
to piggyback human rights agreements with foreign aid.
8.
to carry (somebody) on the back or shoulders.
9.
to carry (truck trailers) by railroad on flatcars.
10.
Radio and Television Slang. to advertise (two or more products) in the same commercial.
verb (used without object)
11.
to be transported aboard or atop another carrier:
The space shuttle piggybacked on the airplane.
12.
to use, appropriate, or exploit the availability, services, or facilities of another:
private clinics piggybacking on federal health-care facilities.
13.
to carry truck trailers by railroad on flatcars.
noun
14.
a house trailer designed to fit over a pickup truck.
15.
a truck trailer carried on a flatcar.
16.
anything that operates in connection with or as part of another.
Also, pickaback (for defs 1, 2).
Origin
1580-90; alteration of pickaback
Examples from the web for piggyback
  • They wondered if they might be able to piggyback on this system to deliver drugs to tumours-and they found that they could.
  • Modern high-tech clusters often gather round prestigious universities on whose research they can piggyback.
  • Another is to piggyback on excellence elsewhere in the university.
  • Allow power grid and telecommunication links to piggyback the corridor and help underwrite costs.
  • Once they received these ratings, the underwriters could leverage them over and over again via so-called piggyback loans.
  • He gave me piggyback rides up my dormitory steps and carted me around town on the handlebars of a bicycle.
  • piggyback shipments, when delivered, may appear to the consignee to be a truck delivery.
British Dictionary definitions for piggyback

piggyback

/ˈpɪɡɪˌbæk/
noun
1.
a ride on the back and shoulders of another person
2.
a system whereby a vehicle, aircraft, etc, is transported for part of its journey on another vehicle, such as a flat railway wagon, another aircraft, etc
adverb
3.
on the back and shoulders of another person
4.
on or as an addition to something else
adjective
5.
of or for a piggyback: a piggyback ride, piggyback lorry trains
6.
of or relating to a type of heart transplant in which the transplanted heart functions in conjunction with the patient's own heart
verb (transitive)
7.
to give (a person) a piggyback on one's back and shoulders
8.
to transport (one vehicle) on another
9.
(intransitive) often foll by on. to exploit an existing resource, system, or product
10.
(transitive) to attach to or mount on (an existing piece of equipment or system)
Word Origin and History for piggyback
adj.

1823, probably a folk etymology alteration of pick pack (1560s), which perhaps is from pick, a dialectal variant of pitch (v.1). As a verb from 1952.

Slang definitions & phrases for piggyback

piggyback

noun

The transport of loaded containers or semitrailers on railroad flatcars (1953+)

verb

To originate or prosper with the help of something else: Aerobic dancing piggybacked on the jogging craze (1968+)

[fr the term for carrying someone, esp a child, on one's back, derived by folk etymology fr pick-a-back, of unknown origin]