Also coigne. [an archaic spelling of COIN, QUOIN, q.v., retained chiefly in connection with the phrase in 1.]
1. In the Shakespearean phrase Coign of vantage: a position (properly a projecting corner) affording facility for observation or action. (The currency of the phrase is app. due to Sir Walter Scott.)
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. vi. 7. No Iutty frieze, Buttrice, nor Coigne of Vantage, but this Bird Hath made his pendant Bed.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., vi. As if the traders had occupied with nests … every buttress and coign of vantage, as the martlett did in Macbeth’s Castle. Ibid. (1823), Quentin D., xx. From some such turret or balcony-window, or similar ‘coign of vantage.’
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, III. xxxiii. A … swarming of the people at every coign of vantage.
1871. Browning, Pr. Hohenst., 1699. Terror on her vantage-coigne, Couchant supreme among the powers of air, Watches.
2. Occasionally used in the following senses, where QUOIN is the ordinary modern spelling:
a. A corner-stone; a projecting corner or angle of a building. (Cf. also COIN 2).
1843. R. Horne, Orion. Great figures started from the roof And lofty coignes.
b. A wedge (in Printing or Gunnery).
1755. Johnson, Coigne … 2. A wooden wedge used by printers. [Bailey had coin, quine, quoine.]
1862. Palmerston, Sp., in Times, 7 March, 7/2. When the gun is elevated by coigns, these coigns often stop the handle of the breech screw from working.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Coign. See Quoin.
† 3. A frequent early spelling of COIN 4–7 (rarely of COIN 1).
