▪ I. short-coat, n.
[In sense 1, f. short a. + coat n.; in sense 2 derived from short-coat v.]
1. A person wearing a short coat. Also attrib. in † short-coat vicarage (meaning obscure).
| 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. xii. 68 Where those great Impropriations are that devoure all the Profits, and have all to a short-coat Vicaridge. 1847 Disraeli Tancred ii. x, There was a strong feeling against the shortcoats [i.e. ‘two tall footmen in short coats’]. |
2. pl. The garments in which an infant is clothed when the long clothes are laid aside.
▪ II. short-coat, v.
[f. short adv. + coat v.
Cf. quot. 1650 under coat v. 1.]
trans. To dress (an infant) in short clothes.
| 1799 Underwood Dis. Childhood (ed. 4) III. 107 It will be adviseable, in order to inure infants to the air, that they be short-coated as early as the season of the year will permit. 1888 M. Bradshaw Ind. Outfits 32 It is best to short-coat babies in the Plains, after the first month. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 746 Infants when first short-coated often suffer in this way [from chill]. |
b. fig. in pass. To emerge from babyhood.
| 1890 Athenæum 22 Feb. 238/1 The North-West Territories are waiting to be shortcoated. |
Hence short-coating vbl. n. used collect. for the various articles required when a child is short-coated.
| 1895 Stores Price List. |