waistcoat
(ˈweɪs(t)kəʊt; colloq. or vulgar ˈwɛskət)
For forms see waist and coat n.; also 6 wascoat, 7 waiscot, wasecoat, -cote, wascoate, -cot, -cote, -cott. In representations of vulgar pronunciation written weskit, veskit, etc.
A garment covering the upper part of the body down to the waist.
1. a. A garment forming part of ordinary male attire, worn under an outer garment (a doublet, later a coat, jacket, or the like), and intended to be partly exposed to view when in wear.
The earliest waistcoats, intended to show through the slashings and other openings of the doublet, were often extremely elaborate and costly. They were sometimes provided with sleeves, and appear to have reached to or below the hips. The waistcoat now has armholes, but not sleeves; it may be made of the same material as the coat, or of different materials, and is sometimes embroidered or otherwise ornamented. The back is now of inferior or thinner material.
| 1519 Nottingham Rec. III. 354 For makyng of a waste cotte. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. i, Hee has a rich wrought wast-coat to entertaine his visitants in. 1649 K. Chas'. Sp. Scaffold 7 The King..being in his Wastcoat, put his Cloak on again. 1666 Pepys Diary 20 June, I have of late taken too much cold by washing my feet and going in a thin silke waistcoate, without any other coate over it, and open-breasted. 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 28 Nov., Domville saw Savage in Italy, and says he is a coxcomb, and half mad: he goes in red, and with yellow waistcoats. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1781, 1 Apr., Sir Philip Jennings Clerk..wore..an embroidered waistcoat, and very rich laced ruffles. 1837 Dickens Pickw. x, He was habited in a coarse-striped waistcoat, with black calico sleeves, and blue glass buttons. 1869 ‘Lewis Carroll’ Phantasmagoria 71 He would keep his right-hand buried (Like Napoleon) in his waistcoat. |
† b. Applied to a plainer and less costly garment, usually of knitted wool, worn chiefly for additional warmth.
Obs.| 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 163/2 Indusium,..a waste coate, or wollen peticoate. 1591 Florio 2nd Fruites 5 T. Giue me my wastecote. R. Which will you haue, that of flannel? T. No, giue me that which is knit. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 68, I hauing for the cold at Dantzke, in the beginning of September, put on a wollen wasecoat, was forced now at the entring of Italy, for the great heat in the end of October, to put off the same. 1698 Ogilby's Brit., Itin. 4/1 Doncaster... Enjoys a good Trade for Stockings and Knit Wastcoats, &c. 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 5 Oct., It grows bloody cold, and I have no waistcoat here. |
c. phr. † in one's waistcoat;
esp. as the typical undress of exercise implying the casting aside of an upper garment (
cf. mod. in one's shirt-sleeves) (
obs.).
under one's waistcoat: in one's breast.
| 1607 B. Barnes Divils Charter iv. v. I 2 b, Enter Astor and Philippo in their wast-cotes with rackets. 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxxix, With all our vanity and absurdity, we Irish have good warm hearts under our waistcoats. |
† d. Applied to a child's first garment.
Obs.| 1538 Elyot Dict., Crepundia..the fyrst apparayle of chyldren, as swathels, wastcotes, and such lyke. |
e. transf. Applied to the plumage of birds, or the coat of animals, about the breast or stomach,
esp. where this is strikingly different in colour or marking from that of the rest of the body.
| 1898 J. D. Rees in 19th Cent. June 1024 A woodpecker with black wings, a white waistcoat, and a crimson crest. |
† 2. A short outer coat or jacket; a ‘jersey’.
| a 1628 F. Grevil Life Sidney (1652) 24 His wast-coat..not unlike the best sort of those woollen knit ones, which our ordinary watermen row us in. 1765 in Sixth Rep. Dep. Kpr. Publ. Rec. App. ii. 134 Floats made of cork in the form of seamen's waistcoats..to prevent drowning. |
3. A short (woollen) garment worn next the skin.
| 1606 Holland Sueton. 75 In winter time clad he went against the colde with foure coates, together with a good thick gowne, and his Wastcoate or Peticoate bodie of woollen. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 347 A flannel waistcoat worn next the skin has often a very good effect in the dysentery. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life xx. §32 Putting on a cold shirt, for the first time after throwing off the under flannel waistcoat. |
4. As an article of feminine attire.
† a. A short garment, often elaborate and costly, worn by women about the upper part of the body (usually beneath an outer gown, but so as to be seen).
Obs. In the 16th and early 17th c. the waistcoat was one of the normal garments of women, having superseded the
placard and
stomacher. Later in the 17th c. (when going out of fashion),
esp. if worn without an upper gown, it appears to have been considered a mark of a low-class woman of ill-repute (see
waistcoateer 1).
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health cxxxviii. (1557) 51, I cause a man to lye in his doublet, and a woman in her waste cote. 1603 Dekker Batch. Banq. iii. C 2 b, Then comes downe mistresse Nurse, as fine as a farthing fiddle, in her petticoate and kertle, hauing on a white wastcoate, with a flaunting cambricke ruffe about her neck. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 95/1 Wastcoat or Waistcoat..is an Habit or Garment generally worn by the middle and lower sort of Women. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 15 ¶4 A Furbelow of precious Stones, an Hat buttoned with a Diamond, a Brocade Waistcoat or Petticoat, are standing Topicks. |
† b. Applied to garments of foreign women that resembled the contemporary feminine waistcoat.
Obs.| 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 369 The [Indian] women weare of the sayd Turqueses at their nostrils and eares, and very good wast-coats and other garments. 1648 Gage West. Ind. xii. 56 Their Wascoats made like bodies, with skirts, laced likewise with gold or silver. 1653 Greaves Seraglio 130 They [the women] likewise sleep as the men do, in their linnen breeches, and quilted waste-coats. 1707 W. Funnell Dampier's Voy. ix. 254 [The Malayan women] wear a Linnen Waste-coat, which reaches no lower than the lower part of their Breasts. |
† c. A short (sleeveless) undergarment worn about the upper part of the body; a camisole.
Obs.| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vne Chemise de drap, or chemiselle, a wastcoat. 1747 Lady M. W. Montagu Town Ecl., St. James's Coffee-house 75 Her night-cloaths tumbled with resistless grace, And her bright hair play'd careless round her face; Reaching the kettle, made her gown unpin, She wore no waistcoat, and her shift was thin. 1785 S. Fielding Ophelia I. vii, I [a woman] had never worn any thing round my waist but thin waistcoats. |
d. A garment or a bodice-front designed in imitation of the masculine waistcoat.
| 1711 Tickell Spectator No. 104 ¶3. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. xvii, Trolloping things our mothers must have looked [in riding dress of the 18th c.], with long square-cut coats,..and with waistcoats plentifully supplied with a length of pocket, which [etc.]. 1883 Truth 31 May 768/2 The bodice had a sweet little waistcoat, over which the edges of the embroidered linen almost met. 1913 Play Pictorial No. 134 p. ii./1 Waistcoats [for ladies] are growing more and more in popularity, and the waistcoat blouse is one of the latest novelties. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
waistcoat button,
waistcoat-piece,
waistcoat-pocket (hence
waistcoat-pocketful),
waistcoat-string.
| 1787 in Sixth Rep. Dep. Kpr. Publ. Rec. App. ii. 178 Of a new method of making..Coat and *Waistcoat Buttons. 1859 Habits of Gd. Society iii. 142 Elaborate studs, waist⁓coat-buttons, and wrist-links, are all abominable. |
| 1789 J. Woodforde Diary 19 Sept. (1927) III. 193 Gave my Servant Man Ben a *Waistcoat Piece. 1832 H. Martineau Hill & Valley i. (ed. 4) 12 There is not a shop within twenty miles that would furnish me with such a waistcoat-piece as I should choose to wear. |
| 1760 Johnson Idler No. 95 ¶12 He now openly declares his Resolution to become a Gentleman;..carries Silver, for Readiness, in his *Waistcoat pocket. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. 153 The portress receiving a sort of dirty flattened sixpence..and returning me a waistcoat-pocketful of the loveliest clean⁓struck centimes. |
| 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins Tottle ii, Watkins falling bump on his knees, and breaking two brace-buttons and a *waistcoat-string in the act. |
Hence
ˈwaistcoatful nonce-wd., as much (of anything) as would fill, or cover, the waistcoat.
ˈwaistcoating, a textile fabric made
esp. for men's waistcoats.
ˈwaistcoatless,
a., wearing no waistcoat.
| 1824 Landor Imag. Conv., Cav. Puntomichino & Mr. Talcranagh Wks. 1853 I. 171/2 The people..would have added new decorations to his *waistcoatful of orders. |
| 1809 M. Edgeworth Tales Fash. Life II. Dun 315 Mrs. Carver bespoke from him two pieces of *waistcoating. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 4071, Fancy waistcoatings and skirtings. |
| a 1876 M. Collins Pen Sk. (1879) I. 10, I sat in his courtyard, coatless and *waistcoatless. |