ride on the back of

English

Verb

ride on the back of (third-person singular simple present rides on the back of, present participle riding on the back of, simple past rode on the back of, past participle ridden on the back of)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To make use of; to take advantage of.
   • 2006 January 30, Maxodyne, “Re: 4DTV Future 2006”, in alt.video.satellite.4dtv‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Residential C-banders have been, and will continue to ride on the back of commercial C-band technology. And with millions of dollars' worth of C-band birdies orbiting our planet, I believe it is highly unlikely the programming choices will become reduced.

   • 2018 December 21, Sarah Boseley, Angela Giuffrida, Christian Davies, Angelique Chrisafis, Oksana Grytsenko, “Rightwing populists ride wave of mistrust of vaccine science”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     But now vaccine doubt is spreading faster and further than ever through social media, and populist rightwing politicians in Europe and the US are riding on the back of a wave of mistrust of vaccine science.

Related terms

• on the back of