Other forms: coasts
The coast is the line where a country's land meets the sea. The south coast, along the coast, coastal path.
Its measured length depends entirely on the size of your ruler, which is the coastline paradox and a genuine problem in geography — Britain's coast can be quoted anywhere between about 11,000 and 19,000 kilometres. As a verb, to coast means to move without power, and figuratively to do the minimum. Note the coast is clear; and that coast comes from the Latin for a rib or side.
1nouncoastThe line where land meets the sea.
“We drove along the coast and stopped at every little beach.”
2verbmoveTo move without power, or to do the minimum.
“She turned off the engine and let the car coast down the hill.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
coast is a shoreline.
Also accepted in games: coastline, shore
Old French coste meant a rib or the side of something, from Latin costa. The side of the land became the coast, and the same word gives cutlet and accost.
Proto-Indo-European
*kost-
Latin
costa — rib; side, wall
Old French
coste — rib; side of an object; coast
Middle English
coste — rib; side of the body
English, today
coast
From Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body”), from Old French coste (“rib; side of an object; coast”) (modern French côte (“rib; coast; hill, slope”)), from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”). a doublet of costa. Compare typologically cape < caput, ness (akin to nose), нос (“nose; …; cape, promontory, foreland, gore”), ’рт, рт (“cape, promontory, headland”) < rъtъ (whence рот).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA