# tailgate [verb] [BrE] [British English]



## Natsuna

tailgate
: to drive too closely behind another vehicle
_He hit the car in front of him because he was tailgating._
_Someone was tailgating me._
(Source: tailgate - Learner's Dictionary)​
Is this usage of "tailgate" common in BE? If not, what would British English speakers say instead?


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## Rover_KE

Yes, it's very common.


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## Natsuna

Thank you, Rover. 

As both a transitive verb and an intransitive verb?

Examples:

She said the driver was tailgating her and appeared to be following her.
(Source: Central blotter: Stopped for DUI, man blows kisses, propositions female police officer - PalmBeachPost.com)
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/n...dui-man-blows-kisses-propositions-fema/nkfGn/

In Dangerfield v Smith, the motorcycle driver was tailgating when a lead vehicle suddenly stopped, causing a chain reaction.
(Source: Tailgating or Following Too Closely - duhaime.org)
http://www.duhaime.org/LegalResourc...-616/Tailgating-or-Following-Too-Closely.aspx​


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## DonnyB

Natsuna said:


> As both a transitive verb and an intransitive verb?


I would say it's perhaps more usual for it to be transitive, but it can be either, as in your examples.


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## PaulQ

I would assume that both of your examples were transitive and that, in the second, "the motorcycle driver was tailgating" there is an unstated object, e.g. In Dangerfield v Smith, the motorcycle driver was tailgating [another vehicle] when a lead vehicle suddenly stopped, causing a chain reaction.

The OED gives the intransitive form*, but I cannot see a clear distinction:
(intr.) 1962  F. Lockridge & R. Lockridge _Murder has its Points_ xiv. 160  The police car they followed knew its way, and Weigand tail-gated.
(tr.) 1967  _Lebende Sprachen_ *12* 73/2  The use of the verb (which is a recent accession) no longer requires that the car ahead does in fact have a tailgate. One can tailgate a VW.



*Both of these are after the first use of the participle phrase *tail-gating *that seems to have an 'object'.

1951  Amer. Speech 26 309/1  Tail-gating, part. phr., a bad practice of following too close to the tail gate of the truck ahead.


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## suzi br

Rover_KE said:


> Yes, it's very common.



VERY common. 
I was interested to see when this use started.  It is in the OED with a recorded use in 1951, and it did, apparently, originate in the US, but it is totally integrated now.

Alternatives would use more words: "driving too close to my bumper" for instance. 

Or we have vulgar alternatives: "he was driving up my arse!"


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## ewie

PaulQ said:


> I would assume that both of your examples were transitive and that, in the second, "the motorcycle driver was tailgating" there is an unstated object


 Would you assume these to be transitive uses with 'unstated objects' too, Mr Q?

_I was driving along _[the motorway]_ minding my own business when suddenly my airbag went off.
Paul was reading _[one of Dostoyevsky's drearier novels] _when I came into the room.
Mrs Quantock was knitting _[a new swimsuit] _when the accident happened._


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## PaulQ

I'm at a loss as far as the thrust of your question is concerned Mr E. but I'm happy to let the mystery rest.


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## london calling

suzi br said:


> VERY common.
> I was interested to see when this use started.  It is in the OED with a recorded use in 1951, and it did, apparently, originate in the US, but it is totally integrated now.
> 
> Alternatives would use more words: "driving too close to my bumper" for instance.
> 
> Or we have vulgar alternatives: "he was driving up my arse!"


I personally am far more likely to say that someone was driving up my arse.


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## Andygc

PaulQ said:


> I'm at a loss as far as the thrust of your question is concerned Mr E. but I'm happy to let the mystery rest.


Do let me help with your loss. What's the difference between intransitive tailgating and intransitive driving, reading and knitting?


london calling said:


> I personally am far more likely to say that someone was driving up my arse.


Having just come back from a holiday in France, a better term might be "someone was driving so far up my arse that I had a sore throat."


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## london calling

Andygc said:


> Having just come back from a holiday in France, a better term might be "someone was driving so far up my arse that I had a sore throat."


Come and drive here in Italy, Andy. You will come to the conclusion that the French are wonderful drivers and that tailgating (or driving up someone's arse) is an art which has been perfected by the Italians.  May I just add that I speak from experience, having a) driven all over the world (including France) and b) doing, as I do, 40,000 km a year here in Italy.


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## bearded

I confirm.  It is one of our many national virtues.


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## PaulQ

Andygc said:


> Do let me help with your loss. What's the difference between intransitive tailgating and intransitive driving, reading and knitting?


The trouble with to tailgate is that the verb itself cannot be used unless there is something to tailgate. "He was alone in the Sahara, not a soul for 200 miles in any direction, so he tailgated to amuse himself."  We cannot imagine tailgating without something being tailgated.

The verb to tailgate demands an independent object from which it can create a meaning.

Consider:

It broke -> it did not break anything, it just fell into pieces: the subject becomes broken.
It broke the window. -> there is an object that becomes broken.

No difficulties here in deciding the transitivity.

He is driving/reading/knitting can have an object or can describe doing an activity. Even if tailgating (as in the 1951 quote from the OED I gave above) is a noun, it requires the presence of something has a tail that can be gated, as it were.



> Having just come back from a holiday in France, a better term might be "someone was driving so far up my arse that I had a sore throat."


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## JulianStuart

PaulQ said:


> The trouble with to tailgate is that the verb itself cannot be used unless there is something to tailgate. "He was alone in the Sahara, not a soul for 200 miles in any direction, so he tailgated to amuse himself."  We cannot imagine tailgating without something being tailgated.
> 
> The verb to tailgate demands an independent object from which it can create a meaning.
> 
> Consider:
> 
> It broke -> it did not break anything, it just fell into pieces: the subject becomes broken.
> It broke the window. -> there is an object that becomes broken.
> 
> No difficulties here in deciding the transitivity.
> 
> He is driving/reading/knitting can have an object or can describe doing an activity. Even if tailgating (as in the 1951 quote from the OED I gave above) is a noun, it requires the presence of something has a tail that can be gated, as it were.


Bbbbbbut - your example would apply: if there is no reading material around, he cannot be performing the activity.

"He was alone in the Sahara, no printed text for 200 miles in any direction, so he read to amuse himself."  We cannot imagine reading without something being read." 
Ergo, if reading can be an activity (with no object) then so can tailgating - no?


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## Englishmypassion

So are the verbs whose object is not stated really transitive or intransitive in strict sense, e.g. if asked in an exam ( I'm referring to an exam because it has happened and coincidentally the question was "He is reading"! ).


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## PaulQ

JulianStuart said:


> Bbbbbbut - your example would apply: if there is no reading material around, he cannot be performing the activity.
> 
> "He was alone in the Sahara, no printed text for 200 miles in any direction, so he read to amuse himself."  We cannot imagine reading without something being read."
> Ergo, if reading can be an activity (with no object) then so can tailgating - no?


I take your point, and was aware of it, however, and this is subtle, the action of reading takes place between the retina and brain, i.e. within the subject, whereas the tailgating must concern an object, exterior to the subject, to have meaning.

It is why I said





PaulQ said:


> I would assume that both of your examples were transitive


I would only add that there is nothing remarkable in assuming an object.


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## JulianStuart

I don't enjoy tailgating* or being tailgated.

*Except for the "partying out of a tailgate in the parking lot before a NFL game


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## Sepia

@the trouble with to tailgate is that the verb itself cannot be used unless there is something to tailgate. "He was alone in the Sahara, not a soul for 200 miles in any direction, so he tailgated to amuse himself."  We cannot imagine tailgating without something being tailgated.

The queation was: What makes it different from intransitive reading, driving or knitting.
If I am sitting next to you in that car, reading to kill time (because you can't find anyone to tailgate and thus amuse us) it is obvious that I must have something to read.


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## Andygc

PaulQ said:


> I take your point, and was aware of it, however, and this is subtle, the action of reading takes place between the retina and brain, i.e. within the subject, whereas the tailgating must concern an object, exterior to the subject, to have meaning.


So when I say "I go sailing", I'm using "to sail" as a transitive verb? If I don't have a yacht exterior to me, I'll be swimming, not sailing. I must try intransitive parachuting some time.


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## PaulQ

Andygc said:


> So when I say "I go sailing", I'm using "to sail" as a transitive verb?


No, "sailing" is the complement of the verb "to go".


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## Andygc

PaulQ said:


> No, "sailing" is the complement of the verb "to go".


OK. "I'm sailing". Now, are you saying that is transitive?


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## ewie

Thanks to everyone who helped answer my 'question'.


PaulQ said:


> I would only add that there is nothing remarkable in assuming an object.


I would only add that while there's nothing remarkable in assuming an object, assuming an object doesn't make a verb any less grammatically intransitive if it's being used intransitively.
This reminds me of that old philosophical conundrum:
_Deaf and one-armed Joe was alone in the forest clapping when the tree fell.  Q: Which made the most noise?_

The answer is, of course, 'a duck'.


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## neal41

Pickups have been common in the US for many decades, and every pickup has a tail gate (or at least it did when it was new).  My impression is that pickups are not common in Europe.  Americans easily associate the meaning of the verb 'tailgate' with the tail gate of a pickup.  Do speakers of BE make that association?


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## Loob

neal41 said:


> Pickups have been common in the US for many decades, and every pickup has a tail gate (or at least it did when it was new).  My impression is that pickups are not common in Europe.  Americans easily associate the meaning of the verb 'tailgate' with the tail gate of a pickup.  Do speakers of BE make that association?


No. I don't even know what a _tail gate of a pickup_ is

But I do understand - and use - the verb "tailgate"


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## PaulQ

ewie said:


> assuming an object doesn't make a verb any less grammatically intransitive if it's being used intransitively.


I'm not sure what that even means. You're going to have to throw a bone, Mr E. An example sentence would be nice...





neal41 said:


> Pickups have been common in the US for many decades, and every pickup has a tail gate (or at least it did when it was new).  My impression is that pickups are not common in Europe.  Americans easily associate the meaning of the verb 'tailgate' with the tail gate of a pickup.  Do speakers of BE make that association?


If you see #5, I quoted "1967  _Lebende Sprachen_ *12* 73/2  The use of the verb (which is a recent accession) no longer requires that the car ahead does in fact have a tailgate. One can tailgate a VW." I suppose how to tailgate is seen in the UK and Ireland. (As a matter of fact, pick-ups are not rare in Europe.)


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## Loob

(1) What's a tailgate, please?
(2) How do you distinguish, Paul, between a _transitive verb with an understood object_ and an _intransitive verb_?


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## srk

Here's a photo showing a lowered tailgate on a pickup truck.  It keeps the contents of the truck bed from spilling out when it is closed and the truck is in motion, and it allows the bed to be loaded and unloaded when it is open.  In the picture, it's being used as a table.  That's a way that it's used at a tailgate party (also shown).


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## Loob

I'm sorry, srk ~
(1) it took ages to load the photo
(2) the photo, when loaded, didn't give me any indication of what "a tailgate" was.

That still doesn't help in relation to transitive/intransitive _tailgate_....


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## srk

I'm sorry too, Loob.  I thought my description would help you identify it in the picture.


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## Andygc

Loob. Standard open builder's truck with low panels all round the load platform. The panels hinge down. The one across the back is the tailgate. Similarly, the drop-down panel at the back of a typical army truck or at the back of a LandRover. Can be supported by chains to keep it level, or if the chains are unhooked it hangs down.

EDIT
Try this picture http://army-uk.com/stock/fotobig/943_IMG_2781.JPG
The tailgate is the bit across the back with two square holes in and two foot loops at the top (ie they're steps when the tailgate is lowered.)


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## PaulQ

Loob said:


> How do you distinguish, Paul, between a _transitive verb with an understood object_ and an _intransitive verb_?


I would like to see what Ewie has to say about his #22 first, however, since you ask:
"We had the track to ourselves. Loob and I climbed in our Ferraris and floored them to the metal. Loob was tailgating for the entire 20 laps." 

Now, if you say that, your audience will immediately assume, and correctly, that you were tailgating me. They have assumed an object. I need not state it at all - nothing else makes any sense.


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## George French

Natsuna said:


> tailgate
> : to drive too closely behind another vehicle
> _He hit the car in front of him because he was tailgating._
> _Someone was tailgating me._
> (Source: tailgate - Learner's Dictionary)​
> Is this usage of "tailgate" common in BE? If not, what would British English speakers say instead?


 
In my English it is "The idiot behind me was too close to avoid hitting the rear of my car when I had to brake."

GF..


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## Andygc

PaulQ said:


> I would like to see what Ewie has to say about his #22 first, however, since you ask:
> "We had the track to ourselves. Loob and I climbed in our Ferraris and floored them to the metal. Loob was tailgating for the entire 20 laps."
> 
> Now, if you say that, your audience will immediately assume, and correctly, that you were tailgating me. They have assumed an object. I need not state it at all - nothing else makes any sense.


Frankly, that's a crazy analysis. Loob was tailgating. No object, intransitive. Loob was tailgating me. Object me, transitive. If that's not how you decide if a verb is intransitive or not, we might as well chuck all the grammar books out of the window. Once we start imagining objects we destroy the vocabulary used to describe grammatical structures.


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## Loob

That makes sense to me, Andy....


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## PaulQ

I was asked how an object is understood. You might like to read my #5 again.


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## Andygc

Andygc said:


> OK. "I'm sailing". Now, are you saying that is transitive?


I haven't seen a reply to that PaulQ.


PaulQ said:


> I was asked how an object is understood. You might like to read my #5 again.


No, I've read it enough times already, thank you. It's still a bizarre analysis:

"I tailgate a car" - transitive. "I tailgate" - intransitive. Except in PaulQ's grammar when it's transitive because "car" is an imaginary object that is necessary to the meaning of "tailgate".
"I sail a boat" - transitive. "I sail" - intransitive. But if I don't have a boat I drown, so by your system of analysis, "I sail" is transitive.

Do you suggest that we all abandon the normal definition of an intransitive verb and start hunting for imaginary objects?


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## PaulQ

Andygc said:


> because "car" is an imaginary object that is necessary to the meaning of "tailgate".


It is more "implicit".





> Do you suggest that we all abandon the normal definition of an intransitive verb and start hunting for imaginary objects


It is always pleasant to receive a query: as it happens the intransitive verb is seen as a very general category and not a very good descriptor of its function at all. 

Have a read of this and tell me what you think: http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/24.902/unaccusatives.html. It is not particularly long. (The page has no title, but you may trust it.)


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## ewie

PaulQ said:


> I'm not sure what that even means. You're going to have to throw a bone, Mr E.


Sorry, I thought it was pretty much blindingly obvious what it meant: 'assuming' an object of a verb when no object is actually *mentioned* because there is no object because the verb is being used intransitively _("What was he doing when the accident happened?" ~ "He was reading/knitting/sailing/tailgating")_ doesn't somehow magically transform the verb into one being used transitively.  That appears to be what you were 'assuming' in post #5:


> I would assume that both of your examples were transitive


Unlike you, Mr Q, I would _assume_ that a verb being used intransitively _was being used intransitively_


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## PaulQ

ewie said:


> I thought it was pretty much blindingly obvious


Well there you go... 





ewie said:


> Unlike you, Mr Q, I would _assume_ that a verb being used intransitively _was being used intransitively_


I'm sure that's the commonest first thought, and I am not surprised.

There are verbs that include within their definition their own object such that the listener understands what happened. These are usually specialised verbs that are univocal. It is not always clear if these are transitive or not as they contain so much information.

Consider
I jump (intr.) - here you imagine my leaping
I jump the fence (tr.) - here you imagine me springing over a fence.

That's pretty clear.

However, here's an example that involves football:

5.1 A paradox
Consider the following example10:
(17) a. Zola headed Chelsea in front / level.
b. Zola headed *(the ball).​
(A discussion follows about the role of Chelsea and of the ball as objects of the verb head. It is interesting and relevant but quoting limits apply. You will probably be able to work out the gist from the examples.)


5.2 Verbs of emission

In order to solve the paradox illustrated in the previous subsection, we could argue that, [...] head is an *optionally transitive verb*. Optionally transitive verbs such as drink allow for the use of an unsubcategorised object in an RC and do not need to code the subcategorised object as a landmark (cf. He ate himself to death). Consider the following example:

(18) … Yorke rising unopposed to head Ø over the line from eight yards.

(18) means that Yorke scored a goal by heading the ball, *which is what the empty set symbol Ø stands for*. *Therefore, head in (18) behaves like an optionally transitive verb,*​
The extracts are taken from page 9 of *"*Unsubcategorized objects in English resultative constructions" by Cristiano Broccias (Università di Pavia) http://www.broccias.net/research/SLE2001.pdf (A smallish download of 15 pages.)

As you come from Liverpool, I don't suppose you know much about football  but given the context, the only thing (univocal) that *to head* can mean is "head the ball" - I  understand this as an example of an optionally transitive verb.

*Tailgate *follows this style. It is univocal. If we exclude figurative meanings, *tailgate*, like to head (in that context) takes only one object and becasue the object is "blindingly obvious", it is not clear whether tailgate and head are transitive or intransitive as the overt inclusion of an object adds no semantic advantage at all. (See Broccias's comments above.) The description is "optionally transitive."
*
*


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## ewie

> _He's reading/sailing/tailgating* _— these verbs have no OBJECT — we call them _intransitive_ verbs.
> _He's reading a book / He's sailing a dinghy / He's tailgating a massive lorry _— these verbs have OBJECTS — we call them _transitive _verbs.
> 
> For the purposes of distinguishing a transitive from an intransitive verb THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.
> 
> *Some people may try to convince you, for reasons known only to them, that this last one _(He's tailgating)_ is somehow a transitive verb.  Ignore these people.


—extracted from _English Grammar for Absolutely Everyone Except Paul Q and Anyone Else Trying to Prove an Arcane 'Point' on an Internet Forum_, 2015

Also: I'm not from Liverpool.


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## Keith Bradford

To come back to tailgating...

The tailgate was originally a wooden gate that closed the back of a hay wagon, like the toy one in this image http://www.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/41/10/f8/4110f8bdc3a9e5167ec7e2bfb6cde2fc.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.pinterest.com/tonybednar/toys-games-play-vehicles/&h=149&w=236&tbnid=MlIKgl-1OJpe_M:&zoom=1&docid=p7HKUJoqkOpmIM&ei=ZhlsVf-1GML-UuPHgMgC&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=1878&page=4&start=52&ndsp=17&ved=0CM8BEK0DMDk

Also, apparently, called a *lade* ?


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## Loob

I just want to say thank you to srk, Andy, and now Keith for the pictures. With morning eyes and a better internet connection, I now see exactly what a "tailgate" is


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## natkretep

I think I see what Paul is trying to say. It might be helpful to think of verbs like _read_:

A. I'm reading the papers (transitive)
B. I like to read (intransitive, but with an assumed object)
C. The article reads well (intransitive)

_Tailgate _can be used as in A and B but not in C.

Thank you also for enlightening me about what a tailgate is!


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## siares

PaulQ said:


> He is driving/reading/knitting can have an object or can describe doing an activity.





PaulQ said:


> this is subtle, the action of reading takes place between the retina and brain, i.e. within the subject, whereas the tailgating must concern an object, exterior to the subject, to have meaning.


This made me think of therapists advising sufferers of OCD and other disorders, to take up a repetitive activity which involves no decision making, but does completely occupy the brain (transports one away from oneself's self).
Such as knitting. They don't say: knit a sweater. They say: knit.
He reads: I don't need to imagine specific physical books for this to make sense.
Tailgating seems to have no purpose outside in itself - the very physicality (position) of the other car is essential for tailgating to make sense.(e)



ewie said:


> assuming an object doesn't make a verb any less grammatically intransitive if it's being used intransitively.


I don't know any grammar, but if grammar does not reflect this subtlety


PaulQ said:


> this is subtle, the action of reading takes place .. within the subject


it should do._ 

E: crosspost_


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## RM1(SS)

JulianStuart said:


> I don't enjoy tailgating* or being tailgated.
> 
> *Except for the "partying out of a tailgate in the parking lot before a NFL game


Random House gives this as a second meaning for "to tailgate":

to have a picnic on a tailgate, esp. of a station wagon:
tailgating before the big game.

Such as the folks in this picture and this one are doing.*  (This is much more common with pickups than with station wagons, if only for the reason that there are more pickups nowadays.)


* Or this interesting variation.


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## Andygc

RM1(SS) said:


> to have a picnic on a tailgate, esp. of a station wagon:
> tailgating before the big game.


That'll be intransitive, then 

When I was on Ascension Island (rather a long time ago), the Queen's hard-top LandRover (the only one on the Island with the insulated roof*) had a lockable custom-built box for my medical bag, made to order in the workshop. It was perfect for a bottle of gin, several bottles of tonic and a bag or two of ice. Came in really handy at the Ascension Day fair. I didn't know that what we were doing was "tailgating".

*like this, but green of course. Lovely - go anywhere.


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