Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. On the shoulders or back: ride piggyback; a piggyback ride.
- adv. By or relating to a method of transportation in which truck trailers are carried on trains, or cars on specially designed trucks.
- adv. In connection with something larger or more important: a tariff provision that came piggyback with the tax bill; a piggyback provision to a new piece of legislation.
- n. The act of transporting piggyback.
- v. To cause to be aligned with an issue, for example, that is larger or more important: "a $21.5-million federal grant to piggyback city and state subsidies” ( New York).
- v. To function as if carried on the back of another: "This reagent will piggyback onto an enzyme” ( Seth Rolbein).
Wiktionary
- adj. On somebody's back or shoulders.
- adv. On somebody's back or shoulders.
- v. transitive To attach or append something to another (usually larger) object or event.
- v. transitive, Internet To obtain a wireless internet connection by bringing one's own computer within the range of another's wireless connection without that subscriber's permission or knowledge.
- v. transitive, Internet Utilizing last mile wiring (not wireless slang) rented from a larger owner ISP by a smaller ISP, last milers are obligated to sell to competitors in places like Canada.
WordNet 3.0
- v. haul truck trailers loaded with commodities on railroad cars
- v. haul by railroad car
- v. ride on someone's shoulders or back
- v. support on the back and shoulders
- adv. on the back or shoulder or astraddle on the hip
- n. the act of carrying something piggyback
- adv. on a railroad flatcar
- v. bring into alignment with
Etymologies
- A corruption of pickaback, itself a corruption of pick-pack, like a pack. (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of dialectal pig back, alteration of pickaback, pickback, pick pack : probably dialectal pick, to throw (variant of pitch2) + back1 or pack1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Some terms piggyback off of older technologies, some re-define pre-existing words.”
“Such projects, called piggyback or hosted payloads, have been gaining prominence as a relatively fast and inexpensive way to meet fast-growing demands for bandwidth from the Pentagon and other U.S. and foreign governmental agencies.”
The Wall Street Journal: Boeing to Begin Selling Commercial-Satellite Capacity
“Or you can take out a second loan, known as a piggyback, with a higher rate.”
“Others flocked to so-called piggyback loans, which allowed them to finance as much as 100% of a home's value by combining a mortgage with a home-equity loan.”
“The so-called piggyback loans are the riskiest of this home-equity debt.”
“Closed-end second-lien mortgage loans, or so-called piggyback loans, allow buyers to entirely fund the purchase of a home without putting any of their money down.”
The Wall Street Journal: S&P Cuts Ratings of Risky Home Loans
“During the peak of the housing boom, many borrowers got around this requirement by taking out a so-called piggyback mortgage, which combined a mortgage with a home-equity loan or line of credit.”
“Ms. Costa also maintains that no one ever explained to her that she was actually signing on to two loans to cover 100% of the home price: a $570,400 primary mortgage and a $142,600 so-called piggyback loan for the remaining 20% of the house's price.”
“A mechanical left ventricular assist device LVAD, which would replace the function of his left heart and allow him to then go on to a standard heart transplant in a few months; or the so called "piggyback" transplant, which replaces the patient's left heart and allows the patient's right heart to continue the right-sided pumping through the lungs," Copeland said.”
“In this speech he also praised piggyback mortgages and HELOCs [home equity lines of credit] used as piggyback loans: "Highly leveraged home purchasers tend to use so-called piggyback mortgages; that is, second liens originated at the time of purchase.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘piggyback’.
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TRAN - automobile technology advancem...
ACC, ATV, ATC, ZEV, RFID, OBD, wiring, VMS, wastegate, tumble, toll lane, swirl and 175 more...
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Swine
For more aporkalyptic fun, see madmouth's Everything's better with a pig in it.
For "references to the Dursleys in Wizard People, Dear Reader, Brad Neely's cosmos-shattering voiceover ...swine, pig, hog, boar, pork, pork bellies, hog cholera, swineherd, pigsty, swine flu, oink, pig in a blanket and 188 more...
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P is for Porch Dog
My P Words
paddington, paddy wagon, paddy whack, paddywhack, paisano, pandemonium, pantaloon, pantaloons, paper tiger, papoose, parachute pants, parcel and 109 more...
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Mary and Max (2009)
Words from 2009 'Mary and Max' film.
muddy, puddle, birthmark, piggyback, pensive, gumnut, pompom, salvage, takeaway, oven, shed, deliberate and 112 more...
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Noah's Park
Hello, and Welcome™! Come and visit our most diverse land of our Animalesque™ adventures. Here at Noah's Park™ we have Virtually All You'd Ever Want To See™. An experience that is related to ani...
sheep's eyes, doe-eyed, cat-eyed, bug-eyed, cat's paw, black swan, leapfrog, menagerie, cold turkey, card shark, snail's pace, bull's eye and 362 more...
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Animalia Wordia
Words or short phrases with animal names in them. Since I already have a dedicated list for 'monkey' words I shall leave them out of this one for the moment.
paper tiger, pigeon-hearted, lion-hearted, sacred cow, chicken heart, fraidy cat, scaredy-cat, snake oil, can of worms, snake pit, rat's nest, stool pigeon and 114 more...
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Front and Back
backchat, backbone, backpack, backhoe, backfire, backhanded, breakfront, beachfront, drawback, effrontery, frontier, switchback and 196 more...
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Corp Speak and Biz Talk
Verbing nouns and nounifying verbs from 9 to 5.
heads-up, win win, value add, synergy, proactive, entrepreneurial, collaborative, cost-effective, paradigm shift, leverage, bottom line, off-line and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for piggyback.

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