coast
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: kōst
ipa: /kəʊst/
enpr: kōst
ipa: /koʊst/
rhymes: -əʊst
Forms: form: coasts
Etymology: From Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body, flank; side of a building; face of a solid figure; coast, shore; bay, gulf; sea; concavity, hollow; boundary, limit; land; country; district, province, region; locality, place; division of the heavens; compass direction; direction; location with reference to direction, side”) [and other forms], from Old French coste (“rib; side of an object; coast”) (modern French côte (“rib; coast; hill, slope”)), from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *kost-. Doublet of costa.
Compare typologically cape < Latin caput, ness (akin to nose), Bulgarian нос (nos, “nose; …; cape, promontory, foreland, gore”), Macedonian ’рт (’rt), Serbo-Croatian рт (“cape, promontory, headland”) < Proto-Slavic *rъtъ (whence Russian рот (rot)).
Senses: examples: text: The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches.
glosses: The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.
examples: text: And the Coaſt towards which the lines KL and VX are drawn, may be call’d the Coaſt of unuſual Refraction.
ref: 1730, Isaac Newton, Opticks, 4th ed., London: […] William Innys […], page 331
glosses: The side or edge of something.
examples: text: Then Herod perceavynge that he was moocked off the wyse men, was excedynge wroth, and sent forth and slue all the chyldren that were in bethleem, and in all the costes thereof […]
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew ij:
text: P. Crescentius, in his lib. 1 de agric. cap. 5, is very copious in this subject, how a house should be wholesomely sited, in a good coast, good air, wind, etc.
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], chapter II, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition ii, section 3:
glosses: A region of land; a district or country.
examples: text: the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: A region of the air or heavens.
Hypernyms: sense: edge of land meeting an ocean, sea, gulf, or bay
word: shore
sense: edge of land meeting an ocean, sea, gulf, or bay
word: shoreline
Hyponyms: sense: edge of land meeting an ocean, sea, gulf, or bay
word: oceanfront
sense: edge of land meeting an ocean, sea, gulf, or bay
word: seashore
Derived terms: Acadian Coast
Bass Coast
Cape Coast
Cassowary Coast
Central Coast
Coast
coastal
coastbound
coasteering
coaster
Coast Guard
coastguard
coast guarder
coastguarding
coastland
coastless
coastline
coast live oak
Coast Salish
coast spurge
coast-to-coast
coast to coast
coast waiter
coastward
coastwards
coastwatcher
coastwatching
coastwide
coastwise
discoast
downcoast
East Coast
Fraser Coast
Fresh Coast
Gold Coast
Gulf Coast
Ivory Coast
Kapiti Coast
left coast
Limestone Coast
Mediterranean coast fever
Mexican west coast rattlesnake
MidCoast
midcoast
Mid North Coast
North Coast
palaeocoast
Palm Coast
seacoast
Silicon Valley of the East Coast
Suncoast
Sunshine Coast
Surf Coast
surfcoast
Third Coast
Turquoise Coast
upcoast
West Coast
West Coast Sound
Related terms: coast fox
coast guard
coast rat
the coast is clear