coat

Universal Words noun, verb noun 1 a piece of outdoor clothing that is worn over other clothes to keep warm or dry. Coats have sleeves and may be long or short: a fur / leather coat * a long winter coat * to put on / take off your coat seealsoDUFFELCOAT, GREATCOAT, HOUSECOAT, OVERCOAT, PETTICOAT, RAINCOAT, TRENCHCOAT 2 (AmE) (old-fashioned in BrE) a jacket that is worn as part of a suit seealsoFROCKCOAT, MORNINGCOAT, TAILCOAT, WAISTCOAT 3 the fur, hair or wool that covers an animal's body: a dog with a smooth / shaggy coat * animals in their winter coats (= grown long for extra warmth) 4 a layer of paint or some other substance that covers a surface: to give the walls a second coat of paint seealsoTOPCOAT, UNDERCOAT IDIOMS cut your coat according to your cloth (saying) to do only what you have enough money to do and no more: We wanted to buy a bigger house than this but it was a case of cutting our coat according to our cloth. verb [VN] [oftenpassive] ~ sth (with / in sth) to cover sth with a layer of a substance: cookies thickly coated with chocolate * A film of dust coated the table. * The mask was coated in gold leaf. seealsoSUGAR-COATED