mackintosh
noun
a raincoat made of rubberized cloth.
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mackintosh
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Mackintosh
MackintoshnounCharles Rennie 1868–1928, Scottish architect and designer.
mackintosh
1 American
[mak-in-tosh]
/ ˈmæk ɪnˌtɒʃ /
Or
macintosh
noun
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mackintoshes
plural
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a raincoat made of rubberized cloth.
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such cloth.
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Chiefly British. any raincoat.
Mackintosh
2
American
[mak-in-tosh]
/ ˈmæk ɪnˌtɒʃ /
noun
mackintosh
1
British
/ ˈmækɪnˌtɒʃ /
noun
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a waterproof raincoat made of rubberized cloth
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such cloth
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any raincoat
Mackintosh
2
British
/ ˈmækɪnˌtɒʃ /
noun
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Sir Cameron ( Anthony ). born 1946, British producer of musicals and theatre owner; his productions include Cats (1981), Les Misérables (1985), Miss Saigon (1987), and My Fair Lady (2001)
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Charles Rennie. 1868–1928, Scottish architect and artist, exponent of the Art Nouveau style; designer of the Glasgow School of Art (1896)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mackintosh
1830–40; after Charles Macintosh (1766–1843), its inventor
Explanation
A mackintosh is a kind of raincoat. If you have to walk your dog in the pouring rain, you may want to wear a mackintosh. You may think of a particular brand of computer or a piece of fruit when you see the word mackintosh, but those are spelled differently. Mackintosh is the name for a long, waterproof jacket, particularly in the U.K. The word is sometimes used for other waterproof items, like a mackintosh hat, and it's often abbreviated as mac. In 1823, a Scot named Charles Macintosh invented a waterproofing process, and the word (spelled both with and without a "k") stuck.
Vocabulary lists containing mackintosh
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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:
“She wore what she was told without argument, apart from a long, drab mackintosh that she loathed,” Crawford wrote in her controversial memoir, “The Little Princesses.”
From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2022
She was doing a fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in the mid-2010s when she saw a red mackintosh from the 1960s.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 2, 2021
Only a few days later, John Galliano debuted what he called an “artisanal” men’s wear collection for Margiela: Electric blue vinyl pants and vampy décortiqué boots were juxtaposed against a Japonisme mackintosh coat.
From New York Times ● Feb. 25, 2019
Donna corrected this: "the man in the brown mackintosh loves a lady who is dead".
From The Guardian ● Feb. 11, 2011
It must have been in the mackintosh pocket for a long time.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
During Blanchett's year as the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre, she will present lectures whilst engaging with students and the wider university community.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
The question for investors is whether stocks lifted by these one-off boosts really offer better value now, columnist James Mackintosh writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
Mackintosh recalled spending 15 consecutive hours fine-tuning around 25,000 lines of code in an application.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
Yet the market isn’t held up by air alone, writes columnist James Mackintosh: Recent military history, U.S. earnings and hopes for artificial intelligence are providing support.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026
This was the time of hygiene lectures, and of practicing blanket-baths on life-size models—Mrs. Mackintosh, Lady Chase, and baby George whose blandly impaired physique allowed him to double as a baby girl.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
In the uncertain weather of a belated Moscow spring, delegates laid aside their fur-collared coats, put on trench coats or mackintoshes as delegations prepared to leave.
From Time Magazine Archive
Limelight went to the post, through a sea of glistening mackintoshes, a 5-to-1 favorite.
From Time Magazine Archive
As they waited for daylight and a glimpse of history, they squirmed under umbrellas, mackintoshes, soggy blankets and newspapers.
From Time Magazine Archive
Of course the "Ayes" had it, and we are now putting the whole house in requisition for cloaks, mantles, and mackintoshes.
From The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. I by Charles James Lever
With the aid of the glass I could see the tourists turn out of the hotels, without mackintoshes and with umbrellas furled.
From The Cruise of the Elena or Yachting in the Hebrides by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie
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.
