noun
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a layer or film spread over a surface for protection or decoration
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a heavy fabric suitable for coats
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dialect a severe rebuke; ticking-off
Etymology
Origin of coating
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.
I can still conjure it: the heated seat warming my back, the hot chocolate coating my throat, the cinnamon strudel giving way under my teeth.
From Salon • Mar. 31, 2026
After the first uncrewed test flight, Artemis I, engineers found that chunks of the heat shield's coating had cracked and broken away during a two‑stage "skip" re‑entry manoeuvre.
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
“She had difficulties already in her life, and there’s no sugar coating that. So we had to navigate this argument that what social-media addiction does is it preys upon the vulnerable more times than not.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026
It’s a Wednesday afternoon in West Hollywood, one day after the city was blanketed in a light coating of rain.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026
It goes into the coating that makes the cover of a magazine shine.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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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.