714 C O A 
within Tight of land.—The ancients coafed only in their 
navigation, feldom taking the open fea. Arbuthnot. 
But fleer my vefi'el with a fteady hand. 
And coaf along the fhore in light of land, Dryden. 
To COAST, <y. a. To fail by; to fail near to.—The 
greateft entertainment we found in coafing it, were the 
'feveral profpe&s of woods, vineyards, meadow's, and corn¬ 
fields, which lie on the borders of it. Addifon, 
CO'ASTER,/ He that fails near the fhore: 
In our finall Ikiff we muft not launch too far. 
We here but coaftrs, not difcov’rers, are. Dryden. 
COAST'ING,/ Is that part of navigation in which the 
places are not far afunder, fo that a lliip may fail in fight 
of land, or within foundings between them. 
COAST'ING-PILOT, A pilot who has become fuf- 
ficiently acquainted with the nature of any particular 
coaft, to conduit ‘a fliip or fleet from one part of it to 
another. 
COAT,/ \_cottc, Fr. cotta, Ital.] The upper garment.— 
He was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the 
coat was five thoulknd fbekels of brafs. i Samuel. —The 
coat of many colours they brought to their father, and 
laid. This have we found : know now whether it be thy 
ion’s coat or no Genefis. —Petticoat; the habit of a boy 
In his infancy; the lower part of a woman’s drefs.—A 
friend’s younger fon, a child in coats, was not eafily 
brought to his book. Locke. —The habit or vefture, as de¬ 
monstrative of the office: 
Men of his coat fnould be minding their pray’rs, 
And not among iadies, to give themfelves airs. Swift. 
The hair or fur of a beaft; the covering of any animal.— 
Give your horfe fome powder of brimftone in his oats, 
and it will make his coat lie fine. Mortimer, 
You have given us milk 
Jn lufcious dreams, and lent us your own coat 
Againlt the winter’s cold. Thomfon, 
Any tegument, tunic, or covering.—The eye is defended 
with four coats or (kins. Peacbam. —The optic nerves have 
their medullary parts terminating in the brain, their tegu¬ 
ments terminating in the coats oi the eye. Derkam. —That 
®n which the eniigns armorial are portrayed. See He¬ 
raldry. 
Cropp’d are the flower-de-luces in your arms : 
©f England’s coat one half is cut away. Shakefpeare. 
,c Cut your Coat according to your Cloth.” This 
proverb contains good advice to people of feveral ranks 
and degrees, to balance accounts betwixt their expences and 
their incomes, and not to let their vanity lead them ; as, we 
fay, To out-run the cot fable: and fo fay the Latins, Sump- 
ius cenfum ne fuperet ; and the French, Fol ef qui plus de- 
fpend, one fa rente ne <vaut ; or, La depenfe ne doit pas ex- 
ceder la rectpte ; Our expences mult not exceed our in¬ 
come. Or, Scion lepain il faut le coutcaw, Our knife mult 
be according to our bread. The Italians fay, according 
to the fecond French proverb, Faciamola fpefa fecondo I'en- 
trata .- or, as We, Bifogna tagliare il ‘vefito fecondo il panno : 
or, in a proverbial rhime, Amiro mio cortefe, fecondo l'en- 
ircite fatte le fpefe. 
Tj COAT, <i;. a. To cover; toinveft; to overfpread : 
as, to coat a retort; to coat a ceiling. 
COAT-ARMOUR, or Coats of Arms,/ in heraldry, 
are what we term armorial-bearings , which are regulated 
by 38 Geo. Ill, c. 53. as follows : From and after the 
24th of June, 1798, every perfon ufing or wearing any ar¬ 
morial bearing or enfign, or who fliall be poflefled of any 
carriage, or feal, or plate, or other article, on which the 
fame fliall be painted, marked, engraved, or affixed, fhall 
previoufly enter his name, and annually take out a certi¬ 
ficate thereof. And, upon every fuch certificate iffued to 
any perfon keeping a coach or other carriage, on whichfuch 
armorial bearing or enfign fliall be painted, there fliall be 
4 
COB 
charged a fcamp duty of two guineas, Upon every per- 
fon not keeping any fuch coach or other carriage, who 
fhall be charged to the duties on houfes, windows, or 
lights, there fhall be charged a (lamp duty of one guinea. 
And, upon every certificate iffued to any perfon not keep¬ 
ing any fuch coach or other carriage, nor being charged 
to the duties on houfes, windows, or lights, there fliall lie 
charged a ftamp duty of ten (hillings and fixpence. ^lot 
to extend to any of the royal family, or any perfon who 
fliall by right of office, or by appointment, wear or ule 
any of the arms or_ infignia worn or ufed by the royal 
family, or ufed by any city, borough, or town corporate. 
No perfon who fliall come into this kingdom from foreign 
parts, fliall be required to obtain his certificate before the 
expiration of twenty-one days next after fuch arrival; 
and the proof of fuch arrival fliall lie upon the party. 
Coats of arms were not introduced into feals, nor into 
any other ufe, till about the reign of Richard I. who 
brought them from the Croifade in the Holy Land, where 
they were firft invented and painted on the fhieids of the 
knights, to diilinguifh the variety of perfons of every 
Chriftian nation who reforted thither, and who could 
not, when clad in complete fteele, be otherwife known or 
afcertained. 2 Comm, 306. It is the bufmefs of the court- 
military, or the court of chivalry, according to fir 
Matthew Hale, to adjuft the right of armorial enfigns, 
bearings, crefts, fupporters, pennons, See. and alfo rights 
of place or precedence, where the king’s patent, or ait of 
parliament, (which cannot be over-ruled by this court,) 
have not already determined it. 3 Comm 105. 
COAT-CARD,/ [now corrupted into] Court-card. 
—We call’d him a coat-card of the laft order, [a knave. J 
Ben Jonfon. 
COAT of MAIL. See Armour, vol. ii. p. 200. 
COATZACUAL'CO, a navigable river of Mexico, 
or New Spain, which empties into the gulf of Mexico, 
near the country of Onohualco 
COA'VO, or Cuavo, a river of Africa, which runs into 
the Indian fea. Lat. 8. 40. S. Ion. 38. E. Greenwich. 
To COAX, ‘V. a* To wheedle; to‘flatter; to humour. 
A low word. 
CO'AXER,/ A wheedler; a flatterer. 
COB, a word often ufed in the compofition of low 
terms; corrupted from cop, Sax. Itopf, Germ, the head 
or top, 
COB,/ A fort of fea-fowl, called fea cob. Philips .—In 
fome provinces, and probably in old language, a Ipider ; 
whence cobweb. 
COBA'LT,/ One of the metals of a whitifli grey co¬ 
lour, hard and brittle. The moll remarkable property of 
this metallic fubflance is, that its calyx, or oxyd, when 
fufed with borax, or with alkali and fund, produces a blue 
glafs, known by the name of fmalt. For its natural his¬ 
tory, and chemical analylis, fee the article Chemistry, 
p. 269, of this volume. 
Cobalt is a valuable article to potters and dyers. To fit 
it for their ule it is well calcined, and fold either mixed or 
unmixed with fine land under the name of zajfer ; or it is 
melted with filiceous earth and pot-afhes to a kind of blue 
glafs called fmalt, which, when ground very fine, is known 
in commerce by the name of powder blue. All thefe arti¬ 
cles, becaufe they are moll durable pigments, and thofe 
which belt withftand fire, and becaufe we can produce with 
them every fliade of blue, are employed above all for ting¬ 
ing cryftal and for enamelling ; for counterfeiting opaque 
and tranfparent precious ftones, and for painting and var- 
nilhing real porcelain and earthen and potters ware. This 
colour is indifpenfably neceffary to the painter when he is 
defirous of imitating the fine azure colour of many but¬ 
terflies and other natural objects ; and the cheaper kind 
is employed by laundreifes to give a bluilh tinge to new- 
waflied linen ; and, by the manufa&urers ot paper, to 
heighten its colour, and take off the yellow call of infe¬ 
rior rags, with which it is macerated and mixed in the 
vat, Profeffor Beckmann gives the following account of 
