coat
Americannoun
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coats
plural
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an outer garment with sleeves, covering at least the upper part of the body.
a new fur coat; a coat for formal wear.
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a natural integument or covering, as the hair, fur, or wool of an animal, the bark of a tree, or the skin of a fruit.
-
a layer of anything that covers a surface.
That wall needs another coat of paint.
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a mucous layer covering or lining an organ or connected parts, as on the tongue.
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Archaic. a petticoat or skirt.
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Obsolete.
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a garment indicating profession, class, etc.
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the profession, class, etc., so indicated.
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verb (used with object)
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coats,
present (3rd person singular)
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coated,
past participle, past
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coating
present participle
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to cover with a layer or coating: The furniture was coated with dust.
He coated the wall with paint.
The furniture was coated with dust.
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to cover thickly, especially with a viscous fluid or substance.
Heat the mixture until it coats a spoon. The boy was coated with mud from head to foot.
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to cover or provide with a coat.
noun
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an outdoor garment with sleeves, covering the body from the shoulder to waist, knee, or foot
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any similar garment, esp one forming the top to a suit
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a layer that covers or conceals a surface
a coat of dust
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the hair, wool, or fur of an animal
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short for coat of arms
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in disfavour
verb
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to cover (with) a layer or covering
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(tr) to provide with a coat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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coatsimple
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coatssimple
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have coatedperfect
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has coatedperfect
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am coatingprogressive
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are coatingprogressive
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is coatingprogressive
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have been coatingperfect progressive
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has been coatingperfect progressive
Past
-
coatedsimple
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had coatedperfect
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was coatingprogressive
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were coatingprogressive
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had been coatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of coat
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English cote, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Germanic; compare German Kotze, Old Saxon cott “woolen coat”
Explanation
A coat is a warm piece of clothing you wear when it's cold outside. When the days get short and chilly, it's probably time to start wearing your puffy winter coat. A coat is a necessary garment during the winter in most parts of the world. You can also use the word to mean "layer," like when you paint your house, starting with a coat of primer. Another kind of coat is the one your dog, or any furry animal, has: "I brushed my cat's coat until it shone." Coat comes from the Old French cote, "tunic or overgarment," with its Turkish root kotta, "coarse cloth."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Under a black coat, the petite and poised Navarrette sits on a stool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
“An oversized entry gallery with a coat closet provides plenty of room for a home office or library overlooking the elegant sunken living room,” the listing adds.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
Among the hopeful "misfits", as their school-friend Frank Kearns called them, were Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton – who arrived wearing a full-length Afghan coat.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Even in that condition, however, Main managed to grab the man by his white coat and tell him: “You get this straight. I am walking out of here.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
His ankle-length coat, like a bird’s tail, sweeps and gleams iridescent—purplish black.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Others copped to bringing back years-old coats, kid-rejected snacks, used beach chairs and $800 Oriental rugs—all with no issue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
After the flower is sufficiently “crispy,” she sits at an L-shaped desk overlooking her makeshift garden and coats individual petals with resin up to six times, curing them under a UV light between coats.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Gaggles of British tourists with fur coats and spray tans jostled for seating, clutching their outerwear to their chests for space as they scouted for a table to open up.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
On the Northwest Coast of North America, for instance, some Indigenous communities bred small dogs with woolly coats specifically for their hair.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
He wore no fewer than three coats, all of them of fabrics and colors I’d certainly never seen in Arlington.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Those letters are then locked into a frame called a chase, coated with ink and impressed on sheets of paper.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
She managed to grab hold of her daughter's foot, but her shoes were coated in engine oil from the overturned vessel and she slipped through her hands.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
"This tastes really sweet. It's almost like it's been coated in sugar," said Douyin influencer Liulianzi in a clip liked more than 17,000 times.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
The team then introduced a heat treatment that weakened the force holding droplets to the coated surface.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
The bee man didn't have a beekeeper's mask, though bees coated his smock and face.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Hearn was arrested in June after he said he reached into the water to touch a piece of the coating that had already detached from the bottom of the reflecting pool.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
The anchovy sizzled itself into the oil coating those browned alliums.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
The powders and the coating are carried by gas and brought together in a chemical reaction.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
Even after 3,000 impacts, microscopic examination showed no visible changes in the coating.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
When he breathes through his open mouth, I can smell the night scum coating his tongue and the sunny-side-up eggs he ate for breakfast.
From "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
