piggyback

• piggy-back
• piggy back

A corruption of pickaback, itself a corruption of pick-pack, like a pack.

piggyback (not comparable)

1. On somebody's back or shoulders.

   a piggyback ride

2. Pertaining to transportation of goods where one transportation unit is carried on the back of something else. For example, a truck on a train.
   • 1985, John H. Mahoney, Intermodal Freight Transportation

     Until this time the railroads had favored piggyback services […]

• TOFC

piggyback (not comparable)

1. On somebody's back or shoulders.

   to ride piggyback

• (on somebody's back or shoulders): pooseback (some US dialects)

piggyback (third-person singular simple present piggybacks, present participle piggybacking, simple past and past participle piggybacked)

1. (transitive) To attach or append something to another (usually larger) object or event.

   They tried to piggyback that proposal on the rivers and harbors bill.

   The popular host can’t claim credit for the trade, though. The idea wasn’t his. He piggybacked off another successful investor who had a history of picking winners.

   • 2011 Allen Gregory, "1 Night in Gottlieb" (season 1, episode 2):

     Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Pat, I gotta tell you, you did a lot of things right with this lunch―kudos. You got back quickly, you showed initiative, and, best of all, you left plenty of room for improvement. Piggybacking on that last part, the ugly business of the critique.

2. (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.
3. (transitive, Internet) To utilize "last-mile" wiring rented from a larger owner ISP by a smaller ISP.
4. (transitive) to carry someone on the back or shoulders.
5. (transitive) To transport (a lorry/truck) on a flatbed railway waggon

piggyback (plural piggybacks)

1. A ride on somebody's back or shoulders.
2. An act or instance of piggybacking.
   • 2000, Craig Allen, Eisenhower and the Mass Media: Peace, Prosperity, and Prime-time TV

     The GOP had done its homework prior to bargaining for these piggybacks.

• NY Times, article on wireless piggybacking