coast

Etymology 1

From Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body, flank; side of a building; face of a solid figure; coast, shore; bay, gulf; sea; concavity, hollow; boundary, limit; land; country; district, province, region; locality, place; division of the heavens; compass direction; direction; location with reference to direction, side”) [and other forms], from Old French coste (“rib; side of an object; coast”) (modern French côte (“rib; coast; hill, slope”)), from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *kost-.

noun

1. The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.
   The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches.
2. (obsolete) The side or edge of something.
   And the Coaſt towards which the lines KL and VX are drawn, may be call’d the Coaſt of unuſual Refraction. 1730, Isaac Newton, Opticks, 4th ed., London: […] William Innys […], page 331
3. (obsolete) A region of land; a district or country.
4. (obsolete) A region of the air or heavens.

Etymology 2

From Middle English costeien (“to travel along a border or coast; to go alongside (something), skirt; to accompany, follow; to travel across, traverse; to be adjacent to, to border;”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman [Term?], Old French costoier (“to be at the side of”) […] (modern French côtoyer (“to pass alongside; (figuratively) to rub shoulders”)), from Latin costicāre, from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”); see further at etymology 1.

verb

1. (intransitive) To glide along without adding energy; to allow a vehicle to continue moving forward after disengaging the engine or ceasing to apply motive power.
   When I ran out of gas, fortunately I managed to coast into a nearby gas station.
   We steamed easily across the first part of the Tay Bridge, and then after passing over the long spans in mid-stream we coasted smoothly down the 1 in 114 gradient, and around the sweeping curve through Esplanade Station. 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 7
   Avanti West Coast has introduced the use of coasting with its Pendolino fleet, in an effort to keep disruption during overhead line equipment failures to a minimum. … The Class 390s coasted for three miles without power between Harrow & Wealdstone and Wembley Central, running under damaged OLE. September 23 2020, “Network News: AWC employs coasting to minimise disruption”, in Rail, page 26
2. (intransitive, nautical) To sail along a coast.
3. (intransitive) To make a minimal effort; to continue to do something in a routine way, without initiative or effort.
   November 2 2014, Daniel Taylor, "Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United," guardian.co.uk Yet the truth is that City would probably have been coasting by that point if the referee, Michael Oliver, had not turned down three separate penalties, at least two of which could be accurately described as certainties.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To draw near to; to approach; to keep near, or by the side of.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To sail by or near; to follow the coastline of.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To conduct along a coast or river bank.
7. (US, dialect) To slide downhill; to slide on a sled upon snow or ice.