A Quaker coat.
1842. “What do you ask for this?” said a gentleman in a shadbelly coat.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, March 18.
1843. With wonderful alacrity they carried this judicious resolution into effect, by disrobing themselves of coats, shad-bellies, and jackets, and casting them in a heap on a sailor’s chest established under the eagle’s wing.—Cornelius Mathews, ‘Writings,’ p. 176.
1854. He had, however, doffed the cassock, or rather, the shadbelly, for the gown.—J. G. Baldwin, ‘Flush Times,’ p. 67.
1874. At the risk of compromising him forever, I must confess that his coat is straight-breasted—shad-bellied as the profane call it.—E. Eggleston, ‘The Circuit Rider,’ p. 184.
