coasters

Noun (1)

coaster (plural coasters)

1. A person who originates from or inhabits a coastal area.
   • People said, "Eldridge. Of course, he's an old Coaster," and Eldridge, the middle-aged shipping agent, at the beginning of every meal would say, "Chop, as we call it on the Coast," or handing a plate of onions, "Violets, we say on the Coast."1936, Graham Greene, “The Cargo Ship”, in Journey Without Maps, 1st US edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, →OCLC, part 1, page 27
2. A sailor (especially the master or pilot of a vessel) who travels only in coastal waters.
   • Thus, with ſhort Plummets Heav'ns deep will we ſound, / That vaſt Abyſs where humane Wit is drown'd! / In our ſmall Skiff we muſt not launce too far; / We here but Coaſters, not Diſcov'rers are.1669 June (first performance), John Dryden, Tyrannick Love, or, The Royal Martyr. […], London: […] H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1670, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 43
3. A merchant vessel that stays in coastal waters, especially one that travels between ports of the same country.
   • His father was skipper of a small coaster, from Bristol, and dying, left him, when quite young, to the care of his mother, by whose exertions he received a common-school education, passing his winters in school and his summers in the coasting trade, until his seventeenth year, when he left home to...1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXIII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 245

   Synonyms:

   coasting vessel

4. (US) A cow from the coastal part of Texas.
   • The ranch's rangy coasters, the only saleable cattle they then held, could not compete with cattle from a growing number of Midwest farmer-feeders or with competitors stocking the northern ranges.2020, Michael M. Miller, XIT: A Story of Land, Cattle, and Capital in Texas and Montana, page 119
5. (dated, slang) A prostitute, especially one of European descent, plying her trade in Chinese port towns.
   • Don't tell me you've never heard of Shanghai Lily! Everybody in China knows her. She is a notorious coaster.1932, Jules Furthman, Shanghai Express

Noun (2)

coaster (plural coasters)

1. (Australia, slang) An itinerant person who shirks work but still seeks food and lodging; a loafer, a sundowner.

See all 13 meanings of coaster