Coat sb.

Forms: 4–7 cote, (4 coete, 4–6 coot(e, kote, 6 cot, cott(e, cootte, Sc. coit), 6–7 coate, 7– coat. [ME. cote, a. OF. cote (mod.F. cotte petticoat), corresp. to Pr., Sp., Pg. cota, It. cotta, med.L. cotta, in text of 9th c. Beside this OF., Pr., Cat. had cot masc., med.L. cottus. The origin of the Romanic words is doubtful. OHG. had chozzo, choz masc., chozza fem., MHG. kotze m., Ger. kotze fem., a coarse shaggy woollen stuff, and a garment made of it, and OS. cot(t) ‘woollen cloak or coat,’ which, though not found in the other Teut. langs., are on other grounds supposed to be native words, and the sources of the Romanic words: but the converse seems not impossible.]

  I.  A garment.

  1.  An outer garment worn by men; usually of cloth, with sleeves.

  In olden times the name was sometimes given to a tunic or close-fitting garment coming no lower than the waist (cf. waistcoat); and it was especially applied to the close-fitting tunic which when armed constituted the coat of mail (sense 5) as in quots. c. 1300, c. 1475. In modern use, coat means a garment for the body with loose skirts descending below the waist.

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 2413. Ther was … mony bore thorugh the scheld. Ther was kut mony a kote.

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 152. A strayt cote ful streȝt … A mere mantile abof.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 328. He rode but homely in a medlee cote.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 5471. Sum of seelis of þe see sendis to him cotes.

c. 1475.  Partenay, 4218. Such a stroke hym dalt ther vppon his cote ne had the hauberke smal mail be … ille hym had come.

1530.  Palsgr., Cote for a ladde, jacquette.

1532–3.  Act 23 Hen. VIII., c. 13. Dublettes and sleuelesse cotes.

a. 1572.  Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 74.

1737.  Wesley, Wks. (1872), I. 52. He was as black as your coat with the blows which they had given him.

1853.  Maurice, Theol. Ess., v. 96. They may put on coats without collars and become stiff Anglicans.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Relig., Wks. II. 98. They never saw a poor man in a ragged coat inside a church.

  b.  With special qualifications in special senses, as black coat, dress coat, frock coat, great coat, red coat, etc.; see BLACK, DRESS, etc.

  2.  A garment worn suspended from the waist by women or young children; a petticoat, a skirt. Usually in pl. = petticoats; also, the skirts of a dress. Obs. in literary lang., but widely used in dialects.

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 47. Her cote was somdel to-tore.

a. 1450.  Knt. de la Tour (1868), 50. A cote and a smocke that ye gave to too pore women [Fr. une cotte et une chemise]. Ibid., 65. This woman had tenne diverse gownes and as mani cotes.

1450–1530.  Myrr. Our Ladye, 19. I haue shapen a cote to the quiene of heuen.

1596.  Harington, in Metam. Ajax (1814), 43. Not refusing to wear russet coats.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., I. iii. 16. I could shake them off my coate, these burs are in my heart.

1620.  Shelton, Quix., IV. vii. 54. Donna Rodriguez tuck’d up her Coats.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 341. For the Languages, or Philosophy, that Ingenious Gentlewoman at Utricht, may in her long Coates put some black coates to the Blush.

1693.  Locke, Educ., 176 (J.). I remember that being at a Friend’s House, whose younger Son, a Child in Coats, was not easily brought to his Book.

1741.  Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xx. 32. I had a pretty good camblet quilted coat.

1850.  L. Hunt, Autobiog., I. iii. 104. A … gown, or body, with ample coats to it.

1865.  J. G. Bertram, Harvest Sea, xv. (1873), 316. I have seen the women of Auchmithie ‘kilt their coats’ and rush into the water in order to aid in shoving off the boats.

1883.  H. Watterson, Oddities Southern Life & Char., 478. My wife, like a darned fool, hoisted her coats and waded through.

1888.  Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Coats, petticoats.

  b.  Sometimes used for a woman’s outer garment; esp. in mod. use, a stout buttoned overcoat.

1670.  Mrs. E., in Evelyn’s Mem. (1857), IV. 20. Fitting my little niece with a mantle coat, bodice coat, petticoat narrow shoes and stockings.

1770–90.  Dorothy Kilner, Jemima Placid, in Storehouse of Stories (1870), 236. All the rest of the ladies will wear either gauze frocks or silk coats full trimmed.

1889.  Draper’s Sale Catalogne, Ladies’ Long Cloth Coats, tight-fitting, tailor-made. Girls’ Cloth Jackets, Coats, Ulsters, [etc.].

1890.  Mrs. Oliphant, Janet, I. ii. Her own hat put on and her coat buttoned to the throat.

  3.  Used to translate ancient words, L. tunica, Gr. χιτών (CHITON), Heb. k’thōneth, kuttōneth. (The first two are now usually rendered TUNIC, or left untranslated.)

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 43. Crist bad men sille þer cootis and bie hem swerdis. Ibid. (1382), Gen. iii. 21. The Lord God forsothe made to Adam and his wijf lether cootes. Ibid., Song Sol. v. 3. I [the Bride] spoilede me of my coote.

c. 1400.  Maundev., ii. (1839), 9. The Cros of our Lord … and his Cote withouten Semes.

c. 1425.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 654/31. Hec tunica, cote.

1534.  Tindale, Matt. v. 40. And yf eny man will … take away thy coote, let hym haue thy cloocke also.

1611.  Bible, Gen. xxxvii. 3. He made him a coat of many colours.

1844.  Standard, 30 Nov., 3/4. The miracles of the holy coat of Treves are becoming more and more miraculous.

  4.  Her. = COAT OF ARMS.

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 637. Þe pen-tangel nwe He ber in schelde & cote.

1484.  Caxton, Chivalry, 68. A Cote is gyuen to a knyghte in sygnefyaunce of the grete trauaylles that a knyght must suffre for to honoure chyualrye.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 17. They may giue the dozen white Luces in their Coate.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, F j a. Whose Coat was three Toades, Sable field Or.

1671.  Shadwell, Humourists, III. Wks. 1720, I. 172. The Coat of our Family, which is an Ass rampant.

1863.  Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xix. 477. He sued for the privilege of his heraldic coat.

  fig.  1597.  Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 236. She was sought by spirits of ritchest cote.

  5.  Coat of mail: a piece of defensive armor covering the upper part of the body, composed of a linen or leathern jacket, quilted with interlaced rings or overlapping plates of steel. (See MAIL.) So † Coat of fence (obs.).

[See c. 1300, c. 1475 in sense 1.]

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, iv. 117. They wered alwayes theyr cote of mayle all rousty vpon theyr doubelettes.

1563.  Foxe, A. & M., 859 b. A dronken Flemminge … put on a coate of fence.

1598.  Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., II. iv. (1622), 37. The Germans had neither coat of fence nor helmet.

1611.  Bible, 1 Sam. xvii. 5. He was armed with a coate of male.

1782.  Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. IX. 211. Dominic … had next to his skin an iron coat of mail.

1813.  Scott, Trierm., II. xxiv. Gay shields were cleft … And steel coats riven.

  † 6.  Garb as indicating profession (e.g., clerical); hence, profession, class, order, sort, party; chiefly in such phrases as a man of his coat, one of their own coat, etc. Very common in 17th c. (Cf. CLOTH 14, 15.) Obs.

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 162. This [Moses] had a brother, the first of all his cote.

1600.  Holland, Livy, VI. xxx. 238. The Tribunes Militarie … were so … reverenced among those of their owne coat and faction [inter suos].

1647.  May, Hist. Parl., I. iii. 28. The Archbishop of Canterbury.…; a man … of a disposition too fierce and cruell for his Coat.

1651.  Reliq. Wotton., 102. A doctor of Physic being returned one of the burgesses, Which was not ordinary in any of his coat.

1686.  Catholic Representer, II. 60/1. Reports … warmly carried about … by Men of all Coats.

a. 1711.  Ken, Lett., Wks. (1838), 19.

1774.  Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 483. I know no man of his coat who would fall in so well with you.

  II.  A covering compared to a garment.

  7.  transf. A natural covering or integument.

  a.  An animal’s covering of hair, fur, wool, feathers, etc.; rarely the skin or hide.

1393.  Gower, Conf., I. 143. When he [Nebuchadnezzar] beheld his cote of heres.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. xvi. 86. Accorde to gidere … as doggis doon … whanne ech of hem terith otheris coot.

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 118. Reward not thy sheepe (when ye take off his cote) with twitchis and patches, as brode as a grote.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., II. i. 37. Such groanes That their discharge did stretch his [a stag’s] leatherne coat Almost to bursting.

1615.  Overbury, Characters, Sailor (N.). His life is like a hawkes, the best part mewed; and if he liue till three coates is a Master.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 406. Fish … sporting with quick glance Show to the Sun thir wav’d coats dropt with Gold.

1681.  W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 342. A Hawk of the first coat, accipiter bimus; of the second coat, trimus.

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 44. The mules … have their coats closely shorn.

  b.  Phys. A membrane or other structure investing or lining an organ of an animal body (as the arachnoid coat of the brain, the choroid coat of the eye), or forming one of the layers of which the walls of a hollow organ or vessel consist (as the coats of the stomach, of the arteries).

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurgie, 26. Þe toþer arterie … haþ two cootis, bi cause þat oon myȝt not aȝenstonde þe strenkþe of þe spiritis.

1679.  Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 290. It was some way or other swallowed insensibly, and that it pierced by degrees the coats of the stomack.

1767.  Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 84. When one or two of the three coats of an artery are wounded.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, xxxv. 286. The eyeball … consists of four coats or membranes.

  c.  A structure forming the integument of some part of a plant, or anything similar; as the skin, rind, husk, etc., of a fruit or seed; † the rind of cheese (obs.); the layers of a bulb, as an onion; the similar layers of a precious stone, as an agate; the annual lavers of wood in exogenous trees, etc.

1567.  Maplet, Gr. Forest, 44. Eche coate of his … set in the Gardaine or otherwhere will soone come vp.

1597.  Thynne, in Animadv. (1865), Introd. 100. The swete chestnute is covered with a … rooffe coote.

1671.  Grew, Anat. Plants, I. i. § 8. The Coats of the Bean being stripp’d off, the proper seed shews it self.

1740.  Cheyne, Regimen, 195. The concave Surfaces that make a Globe (as the Coats of an Onion).

1796.  Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, ii. 15. Cheese is to be chosen by its moist and smooth coat.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 570. On that side the annual coats of wood are thinner.

1875.  J. W. Dawson, Dawn of Life, v. 95. Bands of differently coloured materials deposited in succession, like the coats of an onyx agate.

  8.  Naut. A piece of tarred canvas or tarpaulin nailed round the mast, bowsprit, or pumps, where they enter the deck, or round the hole in which the rudder traverses, to keep the water out.

1626.  Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 12. Coates … for all masts and yeards.

1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 4. The helm coat was washed away.

1729.  Capt. W. Wriglesworth, MS. Log-bk. of the ‘Lyell,’ 22 Sept. Took in new Coats for the Helm and Pumps.

1800.  Naval Chron., III. 299. He found … the main-mast’s coat … in flames.

  9.  A layer of any substance, such as paint, tar, plaster, etc., covering a surface; spec. so much as is laid on at one time; a coating.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 80. With Coate of Lime and haire … and a Coate of fine playster.

1727.  Swift, Gulliver, III. iii. 193. Over all is a coat of rich mould.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), M ii b. Give her a good coat of tar.

1799.  Med. Jrnl., I. 477. The tongue is usually dry; a coat or covering forms upon it.

1871.  Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6), I. iii. 92. The coat of varnish which surrounded every particle.

Mod.  All external woodwork to receive three coats of paint.

  10.  fig. Anything that covers, invests or conceals.

1611.  Chapman, Iliad, III. 60. Infectious cowardise (In thee) hath terrified our hosts; for which, thou well deseru’st A coate of Tomb-stone [i.e., a stoning], not of steele.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. 20. Heaven’s Star-embroidered Coat.

1771.  Johnson, Falkland’s Isl., Wks. X. 67. He walks … in a coat of darkness.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. § 20. 138. The mountain … with its crest of crag and coat of snows.

  III.  Elliptical uses, phrases, etc.

  † 11.  Short for COAT-CARD. Obs.

1589.  Nashe, Martins Months Minde, To Rdr. Euerie coate and sute are sorted in their degree.

1599.  Massinger, etc. Old Law, III. i. Here’s a trick of discarded cards of us! We were ranked with coats as long as old master lived.

1630.  B. Jonson, New Inn, I. i. When she is pleas’d to trick or tromp mankind, Some may be coats, as in the cards; but, then, Some must be knaves.

  † 12.  Short for COAT-MONEY. Obs.

[1512.  in Rymer Fœdera (1710), XIII. 327. He shall also Receyve for the Coote of every Capitaine and Souldeor foure Shillings.]

1626.  Ld. Conway, Vind. Dk. Buckhm., in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1659), I. 232. Warrants … for the levying of Men, and for Coats and Conduct-Money.

c. 1630.  Scotch Acts Chas. I. (1814), V. 245 (Jam.). Subsideis, fyftenes, tents, coats, taxatiouns or tallages.

1644.  Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 73. He who takes up armes for cote and conduct, and his four nobles of Danegelt.

1721.  Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. I. xxi. 178. For coat and conduct, 6446. 12. 2.

  13.  Proverbs and Phrases. † To baste (pay, etc.) his coat: to beat him. † To be in any one’s coat: to be in his place, ‘stand in his shoes.’ To cut the coat according to the cloth: see CLOTH sb., CUT v. † To turn one’s coat: to change or abandon one’s principles, desert one’s party, apostatize (cf. TURNCOAT). To wear the king’s coat: to serve as a soldier. And others: see quots.

1530.  Palsgr., 498/2. I coyle ones kote, I beate hym.

1539.  Taverner, Erasm. Prov., 15. The Englyshe prouerbe sayethe thus: nere is my cote, but nerer is my shyrt.

1549.  in P. F. Tytler, Eng. Edw. VI. & Mary (1839), I. 171. I would not be in some of their coats for five marks.

a. 1569.  Kingesmyll, Man’s Est., vi. (1580), 31. It is but vaine to saie this, If I had been in Adam’s coate.

1576.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 107/2. We shall see these backesliders, which knowe the Gospell, reuolt & turne their cotes.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., IV. i. 33. I would not be in some of your coats for two pence.

1636.  Henshaw, Horæ Succ., 72. His charity begins at home, and there it ends; neare is his coat, but neerer is his skin.

1665.  Pepys, Diary, 10 April. He desired me that I would baste his coate. Ibid. (1667), 22 July. I wish he had paid this fellow’s coat well.

1883.  Stevenson, Treasure Isl., IV. xxi. 166. I thought you had worn the king’s coat!

  14.  attrib. and Comb. a. attributive, as coat-cuff, -flap, -pocket, -pouch, -skirt, -sleeve; b. objective, as coat-seller, -turning (see 13). c. Special combinations: coat-arms sb. pl. = COAT-ARMOUR, ARMS (see ARM sb.² 14); † coat-deblazoning ppl. a., ? blazoning arms; † coat-feathers, ‘the small or body feathers’ (Nares); coat-link, a pair of buttons joined by a short link, or a button with a loop, for holding together the lappets of a coat; † coat-plight, a ‘plight’ or fold of a coat; coat-tack (Naut.), a tack or nail for fastening the coats (see 8). See also COAT-ARMOUR, etc.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. v. (1632), 212/2. The *Coat-armes of the parties empaled.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., V. x. 248. The proper cognizances and coatarmes of the Tribes.

1829.  K. Digby, Broadst. Hon., I. 89. Supposing that tournaments … and coat-arms, and aristocratic institutions are essential to chivalry.

1640.  Yorke’s Union Hon., Commend. Verses. Those *Coat-deblaz’ning Windowes.

1585.  J. Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 53/1 (N.), Pennæ vestitrices … καλυπτῆρες. The lesser feathers which couer the birds: their *cote fethers.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, ii. 31. A torn *coat-flap.

1565.  Golding, Ovid’s Met., V. (1593), 107. Persey so warely did it shun, As that it in his *cote-plights hung.

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 47. [He] slipt it into his *coat-pocket.

1825.  Blackw. Mag., XVII. 384. What’s that in your *coat-pouch?

1705.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4092/4. Hugh Gronouse and John James, of London, *Coatsellers.

1851.  D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xvii. 174. He felt something pulling at his *coat-skirt.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxxvii. Mr. Codlin rubbed the bridge of his nose with his *coat-sleeve.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Coat-tacks, the peculiar nails with which the mast coats are fastened.

1888.  Sat. Rev., 3 Nov., 529/2. Anything in the way of recantation, *coat-turning, word-eating.