coach

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coach (someone) for (something)

To help someone to prepare for something. My daughter struggles with public speaking, so I coached her for the debate.

drive a coach and horses through (something)

To expose the flaws in something, such as a statement, argument, or belief. Primarily heard in UK. The suspect had said he wasn't there that night but then drove a coach and horses through that idea with today's contradictory statement.

See also: and, coach, drive, horse, through

coach someone for something

to train or drill someone in preparation for doing something. Elliott coached his roommate every night for the contest. Juan coached Alice for the play.

drive a coach and horses through something

Fig. to expose weak points or "holes" in an argument, alibi, or criminal case by [figuratively] driving a horse and carriage through them. (Formal. Emphasizes the large size of the holes or gaps in the argument.) The barrister drove a horse and carnage through the witness's testimony. The opposition will drive a coach and horses through the wording of that government bill.

See also: and, coach, drive, horse, through

drive a coach and horses through something

mainly BRITISH

If you drive a coach and horses through an agreement or an established way of doing something, you destroy it or change it completely. The judgment appeared to drive a coach and horses through the Hague agreement. Ministers are driving a coach and horses through the plans.

See also: and, coach, drive, horse, something, through

drive a coach and horses through

make something entirely useless or ineffective. British

An early example of this idiom is found in this statement by the Irish lawyer Stephen Rice ( 1637–1715 ): ‘I will drive a coach and six horses through the Act of Settlement’. Early versions of the phrase also refer to a space big enough to turn a coach and six (or four ) (i.e. horses) in, but the context, following Rice's declaration, is very often that of rendering a law or regulation ineffective.

1997 Spectator A coach and horses was driven through one of the guiding principles of American statecraft.

See also: and, coach, drive, horse, through

drive a coach and ˈhorses through something

succeed in avoiding certain rules, conditions, etc. in an obvious and important way, without being punished: The wage increase we’ve been given is three times the government’s limit. We’ve driven a coach and horses right through their pay policy.

See also: and, coach, drive, horse, something, through

roach-coach

n. a mobile snack truck. (The term was revived in the Persian Gulf War.) The roach-coach pulled up in front of the dorm every night about eleven.

References in classic literature ?

The coach lumbered on again, with heavier wreaths of mist closing round it as it began the descent.

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The Biscayan, when he saw him coming on, though he wished to dismount from his mule, in which, being one of those sorry ones let out for hire, he had no confidence, had no choice but to draw his sword; it was lucky for him, however, that he was near the coach, from which he was able to snatch a cushion that served him for a shield; and they went at one another as if they had been two mortal enemies.

On, then, as aforesaid, came Don Quixote against the wary Biscayan, with uplifted sword and a firm intention of splitting him in half, while on his side the Biscayan waited for him sword in hand, and under the protection of his cushion; and all present stood trembling, waiting in suspense the result of blows such as threatened to fall, and the lady in the coach and the rest of her following were making a thousand vows and offerings to all the images and shrines of Spain, that God might deliver her squire and all of them from this great peril in which they found themselves.

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As quickly as my uncle said the words, the guard appeared at the coach window, with the gentleman's sword in his hand.

My uncle peeped out of the coach window as they emerged from the yard, and observed that the other mails, with coachmen, guards, horses, and passengers, complete, were driving round and round in circles, at a slow trot of about five miles an hour.

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And now the dawn breaks at the end of the fourth stage, and the coach pulls up at a little roadside inn with huge stables behind.

Tom finds a difficulty in jumping, or indeed in finding the top of the wheel with his feet, which may be in the next world for all he feels; so the guard picks him off the coach top, and sets him on his legs, and they stump off into the bar, and join the coachman and the other outside passengers.

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After this, he took another blow at the horn by way of refreshment; and, having now exhausted his usual topics of conversation, folded his arms as well as he could in so many coats, and falling into a solemn silence, looked carelessly at the familiar objects which met his eye on every side as the coach rolled on; the only things he seemed to care for, being horses and droves of cattle, which he scrutinised with a critical air as they were passed upon the road.

At Eton Slocomb there was a good coach dinner, of which the box, the four front outsides, the one inside, Nicholas, the good-tempered man, and Mr Squeers, partook; while the five little boys were put to thaw by the fire, and regaled with sandwiches.

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To divert my mind, I took up the newspaper which had covered the little basket of refreshments, and which now lay at the bottom of the coach, blushing with a deep-red stain and emitting a potent spirituous fume from the contents of the broken bottle of Kalydor.

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Accordingly, having reduced the luggage within the smallest possible compass (by sending back to New York, to be afterwards forwarded to us in Canada, so much of it as was not absolutely wanted); and having procured the necessary credentials to banking- houses on the way; and having moreover looked for two evenings at the setting sun, with as well-defined an idea of the country before us as if we had been going to travel into the very centre of that planet; we left Baltimore by another railway at half-past eight in the morning, and reached the town of York, some sixty miles off, by the early dinner-time of the Hotel which was the starting-place of the four-horse coach, wherein we were to proceed to Harrisburg.

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I began to think whether it would be best to trust boldly in my disguise, and my lucky position outside the coach, or whether I should abandon my fellow-passengers immediately.

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Be not surprised, sir,' says she, 'that I am able to tell you every step you took that day from the cloister in Smithfield to the Spring Garden at Knightsbridge, and thence to the in the Strand, and how you were left asleep in the coach afterwards.

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It was a little disconcerting to me, to find, when I was being helped up behind the coach, that I was supposed to have eaten all the dinner without any assistance.

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It was so dark when I entered the Coach that I could not distinguish the Number of my Fellow-travellers; I could only perceive that they were many.