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Coast

//kəʊst// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A region of British Columbia, Canada.
Noun
  1. 1
    The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.

    "The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches."

  2. 2
    the act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it wordnet
  3. 3
    The side or edge of something. obsolete

    "And the Coaſt towards which the lines KL and VX are drawn, may be call’d the Coaſt of unuſual Refraction."

  4. 4
    the area within view wordnet
  5. 5
    A region of land; a district or country. obsolete

    "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 […]"

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  1. 6
    a slope down which sleds may coast wordnet
  2. 7
    A region of the air or heavens. obsolete

    "the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell […]"

  3. 8
    the shore of a sea or ocean wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To glide along without adding energy; to allow a vehicle to continue moving forward after disengaging the engine or ceasing to apply motive power. intransitive

    "When I ran out of gas, fortunately I managed to coast into a nearby gas station."

  2. 2
    move effortlessly; by force of gravity wordnet
  3. 3
    To sail along a coast. intransitive

    "The Ancients coasted only in their Navigations."

  4. 4
    To make a minimal effort; to continue to do something in a routine way, without initiative or effort. figuratively, intransitive

    "Yet the truth is that City would probably have been coasting by that point if the referee, Michael Oliver, had not turned down three separate penalties, at least two of which could be accurately described as certainties."

  5. 5
    To draw near to; to approach; to keep near, or by the side of. intransitive, obsolete

    "Anon she hears them chant it lustily, / And all in haste she coasteth to the cry."

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  1. 6
    To sail by or near; to follow the coastline of. obsolete, transitive

    "Nearchus, […] not knowing the compass, was fain to coast that shore."

  2. 7
    To conduct along a coast or river bank. obsolete, transitive

    "The Indians […] coasted me a long the river."

  3. 8
    To slide downhill; to slide on a sled upon snow or ice. Canada, US, dialectal

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”). 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)).

Etymology 2

From Middle English costeien (“to travel along a border or coast; to go alongside (something), skirt; to accompany, follow; to travel across, traverse; to be adjacent to, to border;”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman [Term?], Old French costoier (“to be at the side of”) […] (modern French côtoyer (“to pass alongside; (figuratively) to rub shoulders”)), from Latin costicāre, from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”); see further at etymology 1.

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