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.

coach up

To improve someone's skills or abilities by coaching or instructing them. A noun or pronoun can be used between "coach" and "up." I could tell she had a ton of raw talent. She just needed someone to coach her up. They hired me to coach up their managers on conversational English.

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

roach coach

slang A food truck, a truck or van outfitted to be a mobile kitchen used to prepare and sell food at various locations. Everyone in the office likes to get food from the roach coach that parks outside at lunchtime, but I don't really care for anything they serve. There's a roach coach that always comes around to the dorms and frats in the evening to sell munchies to the stoned college students.

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

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

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

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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.

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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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One of the squires in attendance upon the coach, a Biscayan, was listening to all Don Quixote was saying, and, perceiving that he would not allow the coach to go on, but was saying it must return at once to El Toboso, he made at him, and seizing his lance addressed him in bad Castilian and worse Biscayan after his fashion, "Begone, caballero, and ill go with thee; by the God that made me, unless thou quittest coach, slayest thee as art here a Biscayan."

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.

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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.

'At present, however, his thoughts were occupied with the young lady who sat in the farthest corner of the coach, with her face muffled closely in her hood; the gentleman with the sky-blue coat sitting opposite to her; the other man in the plum-coloured suit, by her side; and both watching her intently.

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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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I could not help wondering within myself what the size of this big coach might be, and how many persons it might be designed to hold; for the vehicle which was too small for our purpose was something larger than two English heavy night coaches, and might have been the twin-brother of a French Diligence.

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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.