Library / English Dictionary

COAST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it

Example:

the children lined up for a coast down the snowy slope

Synonyms:

coast; glide; slide

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("coast" is a kind of...):

motion; move; movement (the act of changing location from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coast"):

sideslip; skid; slip (an unexpected slide)

snowboarding (the act of sliding down a snow-covered slope while standing on a snowboard)

Derivation:

coast (move effortlessly; by force of gravity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The area within view

Example:

the coast is clear

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("coast" is a kind of...):

aspect; panorama; prospect; scene; view; vista (the visual percept of a region)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A slope down which sleds may coast

Example:

when it snowed they made a coast on the golf course

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("coast" is a kind of...):

incline; side; slope (an elevated geological formation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The shore of a sea or ocean

Synonyms:

coast; sea-coast; seacoast; seashore

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("coast" is a kind of...):

shore (the land along the edge of a body of water)

Meronyms (parts of "coast"):

foreshore (the part of the seashore between the highwater mark and the low-water mark)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coast"):

litoral; littoral; littoral zone; sands (the region of the shore of a lake or sea or ocean)

landfall (the seacoast first sighted on a voyage (or flight over water))

seaboard; seaside (the shore of a sea or ocean regarded as a resort)

tideland (land near the sea that is overflowed by the tide)

Instance hyponyms:

Barbary Coast (the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa that was famous for its Moorish pirates)

Aeolia; Aeolis (an ancient coastal region of northwestern Asia Minor (including Lesbos) where the Aeolians founded several cities around 1100 BC)

Atlantic Coast (a coast of the Atlantic Ocean)

Gulf Coast (a seashore of the Gulf of Mexico)

Pacific Coast (a coast of the Pacific Ocean)

Derivation:

coastal (located on or near or bordering on a coast)

coastal (of or relating to a coast)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move effortlessly; by force of gravity

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "coast" is one way to...):

glide (move smoothly and effortlessly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "coast"):

freewheel (coast in a vehicle using the freewheel)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

coast (the act of moving smoothly along a surface while remaining in contact with it)

coaster (someone who coasts)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The crew had thought she would founder and had made for the Norwegian coast in the dinghy.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I've spent a lot of time in the chart-room now, and I'm on the edge of knowing my way about, what charts I want to refer to, what coasts I want to explore.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Most of these water harvesting sites are along the coast but a few are inland—and so are the ahu.

(Scientists report correlation between locations of Easter Island statues and water resources, Wikinews)

It can grow so large that it blankets the surface of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico.

(Satellites Find Biggest Seaweed Bloom in the World, NASA)

We skimmed before it like a bird, the coast of the island flashing by and the view changing every minute.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There may be other lights within the week, and the English coast a less tranquil place!

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Through all the centuries and over all those southern waters nameless men have fought in nameless places, their sole monuments a protected coast and an unravaged country-side.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I found that the wind was northeast and must have driven me far from the coast from which I had embarked.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A British Overseas Territory comprising a peninsula on the southern coast of Cyprus.

(Akrotiri, NCI Thesaurus)

These animals must have been hunted by sailing northwest up the Greenland coast, and more recent specimens were smaller and often female.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)