The exterior line, limit, or border of a country; frontier border. (Obs.) "From the river, the river Euphrates, even to the uttermost sea, shall your coast be."
3.
The seashore, or land near it. "He sees in English ships the Holland coast.""We the Arabian coast do know At distance, when the species blow."
The coast is clear, the danger is over; no enemy in sight. Fig.: There are no obstacles. "Seeing that the coast was clear, Zelmane dismissed Musidorus."
Coast guard.
(a)
A body of men originally employed along the coast to prevent smuggling; now, under the control of the admiralty, drilled as a naval reserve. (Eng.)
(b)
The force employed in life-saving stations along the seacoast. (U. S.)
Coast rat (Zool.), a South African mammal (Bathyergus suillus), about the size of a rabbit, remarkable for its extensive burrows; called also sand mole.
Coast waiter, a customhouse officer who superintends the landing or shipping of goods for the coast trade. (Eng.)
verb
Coast v. t.
1.
To draw near to; to approach; to keep near, or by the side of. (Obs.)
2.
To sail by or near; to follow the coast line of. "Nearchus,... not knowing the compass, was fain to coast that shore."
3.
To conduct along a coast or river bank. (Obs.) "The Indians... coasted me along the river."
Coast v. i. (past & past part. coasted; pres. part. coasting)
1.
To draw or keep near; to approach. (Obs.) "Anon she hears them chant it lustily, And all in haste she coasteth to the cry."
2.
To sail by or near the shore. "The ancients coasted only in their navigation."
3.
To sail from port to port in the same country.
4.
To slide down hill; to slide on a sled, upon snow or ice. (Local, U. S.)
... the good Camillo, too well obeyed the orders of Leontes; for he immediately carried the child on ship-board, and put out to sea, intending to leave it on the first desert coast he ... — Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb Read full book for free!
... night. When her attendant was unconscious and softly breathing in the next room, the mistress of the house was still looking out of the window at the faint gleam spreading from among the trees—not in a steady shine, but blinking like a revolving coast-light, though this appearance failed to suggest to her that a person was passing and repassing in front of it. Bathsheba sat here till it began to rain, and the light vanished, when she withdrew to lie restlessly in her bed and re-enact in a worn mind the lurid ... — Far from the Madding Crowd • Thomas Hardy Read full book for free!
... on the Irish coast, fifty miles from a police barrack, offered cheap as an appropriate basis of observation to psychic enthusiasts anxious to study the ... — Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, August 25th, 1920 • Various Read full book for free!
... they proposed to relate recent, so that all the witnesses of them were not yet dead? They had the resource of interviewing the witnesses who survived. Thucydides, Froissart, and many others have followed this procedure. When Mr. H. H. Bancroft, the historian of the Pacific Coast of California, resolved to collect materials for the history of events many of the actors in which were still alive, he mobilised a whole army of reporters charged to extract conversations from them.[25] But ... — Introduction to the Study of History • Charles V. Langlois Read full book for free!
... so. I don't know anything about it; it belongs to a friend of mine, who loaned it to me. I think the action's German, or Czech; the rest of it's a custom job, by some West Coast gunmaker. It's chambered for some ... — Police Operation • H. Beam Piper Read full book for free!