vbl. sb. [f. COACH v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb COACH.
1. Travelling by coach; the running or driving of coaches. Chiefly attrib.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 172. Several coaching companies were … got up by innkeepers at Darlington.
1884. J. Hatton, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 346/2. The … inn of the old coaching days.
1885. Manch. Exam., 15 May, 5/7. Coaching now thrives … on some favourite routes in and out of London.
2. University colloq., etc. Special tuition for an examination, or training for an athletic contest (see COACH sb. 3, v. 3); special instruction.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis (1871), 29. Such a flat as not to know what coaching meant.
1854. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., xlvi. The very man to give Colthurst all the facts he wanted coaching in.
1889. Daily News, 29 Jan., 3/6. (Boat Race) The President superintended the coaching from horseback.
3. Commercial slang. (See quot.)
1866. Travers’ Circular, 10 Feb., 107/2. Coaching … is the mischievous system of putting up to pretended auction goods for which the owner hopes to realize fancy prices by the employment of fictitious bidders.
