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Definition: coast 1 from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

(14c) 1 : the land near a shore :seashore 2 obs : border frontier 3 a : a hill or slope suited to coasting b : a slide down a slope (as on a sled) 4 often cap : the Pacific coast of the U.S. 5 : the immediate area of view — used in the phrase the coast is clear

coast•al \॑kōs-təl\ adj

coast•wise \॑kōst-॑wīz\ adv or adjfrom coast to coast : across an entire nation or continent


coast

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
land bordering an ocean or other large body of water. The line of contact between the land and water surfaces is called the shoreline. It fluctuates with the waves and tides. Sometimes the terms coast and shore are used synonymously, but often shore is interpreted to mean only the zone between the shorelines at high tide and low tide, and coast indicates a strip of land of indefinite width landward of the shore. Classically, coasts have been designated as submergent if they resulted from a rise in the relative sea level and emergent if they resulted from a decline. Young submergent coasts usually are irregular and have deep water offshore and many good harbors, either bays or estuaries. Much of the coast of New England and most of the Atlantic coast of Europe are young submergent coasts according to this classification scheme. Gradually the submergent coast, subjected to erosive attacks of the ocean and other agents, becomes mature. Headlands are worn back to form cliffs, at the base…
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Full text Article coast

From Word Origins
Latin costa meant ‘rib’ (hence the English medical term intercostal ‘between the ribs’), but also more generally ‘flank, side’. It was in this sense that it passed into Old French as coste , and subsequently into English. The modern meaning ‘seashore’ (which had already developed in Old French) …
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Full text Article coast

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
land bordering an ocean or other large body of water. The line of contact between the land and water surfaces is called the shoreline. It fluctuates with the waves and tides. Sometimes the terms coast and shore are used synonymously, but often shore is interpreted to mean only the zone between the…
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Full text Article coast

From The Macquarie Dictionary
the land next to the sea; the seashore. Plural: coasts the region adjoining it. Plural: coasts Obsolete the boundary or border of a country. Plural: coasts a. US the slope down which a sled travels. Plural: coasts b. US a slide or ride down a hill, etc. Plural: coasts verb (i) …
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Full text Article coast

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
a. Land next to the sea; the seashore. b. The water near this land: fish of the Atlantic coast. c. Coast The Pacific coast of the United States. A hill or other slope down which one may coast, as on a sled. The act of sliding or coasting; slide. Obsolete Th... …
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Full text Article Coast

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The RAF command that operated over the sea from coastal bases in Britain in the Second World War. A vessel engaged in coastal trade. The word also came to apply to a travelling container, often on castors or wheels, for passing food and drink (such as cheese, wine and beer) along large tables. They…
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Full text Article coast

From The Chambers Dictionary
the border of land next to the sea; the seashore; (often with cap ; with the ) the Pacific coast of the USA ( N Am ); a side ( obs ); a limit or border ( obs ); a region ( obs ); direction ( obs ); footing, terms ( Spenser ); a hill suitable for tobogganing ( N Am ); an act or period of sliding down…
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The towns and hinterland communities of the Eastern African coast share characteristics that emerged in the first millennium AD in what became known as Swahili civilization. The Swahili coast extended 2500 kilometers from Somalia to Mozambique, and incorporated the Comoros Archipelago and…
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Full text Article Swahili Coast

From Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedias in Social Sciences: The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies
Map of the Eastern African coast,...
Africa’s eastern coast, which borders the Indian Ocean (see Figure 1), has been home to an urban society for at least a thousand years; and the roots of those towns go back many centuries further. Swahili culture developed here, defined by a common language, religion, historical tradition, and…
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Full text Article coast type

From Science Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Marine Science
A coast type is a coupled region of wetland and deepwater approach that shares the influence of similar hydrologic, geomorphologic, chemical, biological, and physical factors. The coast is the dynamic linear strip of land that extends from the seashore inland to the first major change in terrain…
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Full text Article Ivory Coast

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
A geographic region on the west African coast and the independent republic of Côte d'Ivoire since 1960. The Portuguese named the Ivory Coast in the fifteenth century because of the enormous amounts of ivory used in the area. Like many other European explorers of the fifteenth century, the Portuguese…
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