coast

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the area within view

   the coast is clear

2. 2
   noun

   a slope down which sleds may coast

   when it snowed they made a coast on the golf course

3. 3
   verb

   to move effortlessly

   I coasted down the road at 7am, before the traffic started.

4. 4
   noun

   The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.

   The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches.

5. 5
   noun

   The side or edge of something.

   And the Coaſt towards which the lines KL and VX are drawn, may be call’d the Coaſt of unuſual Refraction.

6. 6
   noun

   A region of land; a district or country.

   Then Herod perceavynge that he was moocked off the wyse men, was excedynge wroth, and sent forth and slue all the chyldren that were in bethleem, and in all the costes thereof […]

7. 7
   noun

   A region of the air or heavens.

   the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell […]

8. 8
   verb

   To glide along without adding energy; to allow a vehicle to continue moving forward after disengaging the engine or ceasing to apply motive power.

   When I ran out of gas, fortunately I managed to coast into a nearby gas station.

Etymology

From Middle English costeien (“to travel along a border or coast; to go alongside (something), skirt; to accompany, follow; to travel across, traverse; to be adjacent to, to border;”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman [Term?], Old French costoier (“to be at the side of”) […] (modern French côtoyer (“to pass alongside; (figuratively) to rub shoulders”)), from Latin costicāre, from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”); see further at etymology 1.