Word.ws English Dictionary

coast

UK/kəʊst//koʊst/

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

coast: the edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake
Image: Uoaei1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

coast (plural coasts)

  1. The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.
    • The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches.
    • a town on the coast of Trinidad
  2. (obsolete) 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.1730, Isaac Newton, Opticks, 4th ed., London: […] William Innys […], page 331
  3. (obsolete) 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 […]1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew ij
    • P. Crescentius, in his lib. 1 de agric. cap. 5, is very copious in this subject, how a house should be wholesomely sited, in a good coast, good air, wind, etc.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], chapter II, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC...
  4. (obsolete) A region of the air or heavens.
    • the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Verb

coast (third-person singular simple present coasts, present participle coasting, simple past and past participle coasted)

  1. (intransitive) 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.
    • We steamed easily across the first part of the Tay Bridge, and then after passing over the long spans in mid-stream we coasted smoothly down the 1 in 114 gradient, and around the sweeping curve through Esplanade Station.1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 7
  2. (intransitive) To sail along a coast.
    • The Ancients coasted only in their Navigations.1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures. Explain'd and exemplify'd in several dissertations
    • The bold little ships even broke through the Gates of Hercules to the open ocean, coasting then northward to take the gold of Ireland and the tin of Cornwall, as well as southward, around the bulge of Senegal, to remote Yorubaland and the distant marts of ivory, gold, and slaves.1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 14
    Synonyms:
    hug the coastline
  3. (figuratively, intransitive) To make a minimal effort; to continue to do something in a routine way, without initiative or effort.
    • Yet the truth is that City would probably have been coasting by that point if the referee, Michael Oliver, had not turned down three separate penalties, at least two of which could be accurately described as certainties.2014 November 2, Daniel Taylor, “Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2022
    • Rehearsal goes reasonably. Wheeler long ago swore that he would never coast through a performance, and he plays decently well. But it seems to him as if a lot of the orchestra is distracted. Some cues get missed. He makes meaningful eye contact with the conductor a couple of times, and they share a...2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2025, page 136
  4. (intransitive, obsolete) To draw near to; to approach; to keep near, or by the side of.
    • Anon she hears them chant it lustily, / And all in haste she coasteth to the cry.1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC
    • The 25. day of the same moneth we fell with the Cape Cantin , vpon the coast of Barbarie , and coasting along , the 27. day we found an Island called Mogado1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To sail by or near; to follow the coastline of.
    • Nearchus, […] not knowing the compass, was fain to coast that shore.1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC
  6. (obsolete, transitive) To conduct along a coast or river bank.
    • The Indians […] coasted me a long the river.1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC
  7. (Canada, US, dialectal) To slide downhill; to slide on a sled upon snow or ice.

Proper noun capitalized: Coast

the Coast

  1. A region of British Columbia, Canada.

coast meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

coast in Hindi

edge of land meeting ocean, sea, gulf, bay
समुद्रतट samudrataṭ, सागरतट sāgartaṭ, तट taṭ, कनारा kanārā, किनारा kinārā, साहिल sāhil

coast in Tamil

கடலோரம்

coast in Marathi

coast, shoreline
किनारा kinārā

coast in Urdu

edge of land meeting ocean, sea, gulf, bay
کِنارَہ kināra, تَٹ taṭ, ساگَرْتَٹ sāgartaṭ, ساحِل sāhil
More languagesFewer languages
coast in Bengali
উপকূল upokul
coast in Telugu
కోస్తా kōstā
coast in Malayalam
തീരം tīraṁ
coast in Kannada
ಕಡಲಕರೆ, ಬೆಂಗರೆ, ಸಮುದ್ರ ತೀರ, ದಂಡೆ
coast in Punjabi
ساحل sāḥil, ਤਟ taṭ
coast in Gujarati
કાંઠો kā̃ṭho, તીર tīr, સાહિલ sāhil, તટ taṭ
coast in Odia
ଉପକୂଳ, ଉପକୂଳର
coast in Sanskrit
वेलाभूमि velābhūmi, वेला vélā
coast in Nepali
तट
coast in Pashto
ساحل sāhél
coast in Tagalog
pampang, baybayin
coast in Arabic
سَاحِل sāḥil, شَاطِئ šāṭiʔ
coast in Malay
pantai
coast in Indonesian
pantai
coast in Thai
ชายฝั่ง chaai-fàng, ทางลาดเอียง taang lâat-iang
coast in Vietnamese
bờ biển

Examples of coast in a sentence

  • It'd be roughly on par with 2003's Bouchard No. 120 oil spill, in which an estimated 98,000 gallons spilled into Buzzards Bay off the coast of Bourne, Massachusetts.2015 May 21, Eliott C. McLaughlin, “How does Santa Barbara match up with other U.S. oil spills?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 01...
  • Wheeler long ago swore that he would never coast through a performance, and he plays decently well.2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2025, page 136:
  • “I just assumed that because she’s, like, really hot and got loads of followers and is Taylor’s [Taylor Fritz's] girlfriend, she’s basically coasting,” said Ms.2023 August 30, Jessica Testa, quoting Grace Barber, “The Most Famous Woman in Men’s Tennis”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from...

All 40 example sentences with coast

Synonyms of coast

Forms of coast

Noun
pluralcoasts
Verb
third-person singular presentcoasts
present participlecoasting
past participlecoasted
pastcoasted

Plural of coast: coasts

Origin of coast

From Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body”), from Old French coste (“rib; side of an object; coast”) (modern French côte (“rib; coast; hill, slope”)), from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”). Doublet of costa. Compare typologically cape < Latin caput, ness (akin to nose), Bulgarian нос (nos, “nose; …; cape, promontory, foreland, gore”), Macedonian ’рт (’rt), Serbo-Croatian рт (“cape, promontory, headland”) < Proto-Slavic *rъtъ (whence Russian рот (rot)).

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.

Words formed from coast

Phrases with coast

23 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with coast

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about coast

What does coast mean?
Coast means the edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.
What is coast in Hindi?
Coast in Hindi is समुद्रतट (samudrataṭ), सागरतट (sāgartaṭ), तट (taṭ). See Coast meaning in Hindi.
How do you use coast in a sentence?
It'd be roughly on par with 2003's Bouchard No. 120 oil spill, in which an estimated 98,000 gallons spilled into Buzzards Bay off the coast of Bourne, Massachusetts.
What part of speech is coast?
Coast can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce coast?
Coast is pronounced /kəʊst/ (UK).
What is the plural of coast?
The plural of coast is coasts.

Words near coast in the dictionary

  1. coassociators
  2. coassume
  3. coassumed
  4. coassumes
  5. coassuming
  6. coast
  7. coast fox
  8. coast foxes
  9. coast guard
  10. coast guarder
  11. coast guarders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coast (page history and authors); Coast (page history and authors); coast (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); किनारा (Marathi) (page history and authors); തീരം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); coast (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ساحل (Punjabi) (page history and authors); કાંઠો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); coast (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); वेला (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); coast (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-coast.ogg.

Cite this entry: “coast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.