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To slip, or to become slightly displaced; as, the collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying; the quicksilver on a mirror may creep.

The emblem of the increasing moon with horns directed upward, when used in a coat of arms; -- often used as a mark of cadency to distinguish a second son and his descendants.

The hard external coat or covering of anything; the hard exterior surface or outer shell; an incrustation; as, a crust of snow. I have known the statute of an emperor quite hid under a crust of dross. Addison. Below this icy crust of conformity, the waters of infidelity lay dark and deep as ever. Prescott.…

Having the nature of crust; pertaining to a hard covering; as, a crusty coat; a crusty surface or substance.

To dress the hair or coat of (a horse, ox, or the like) with a currycomb and brush; to comb, as a horse, in order to make clean. Your short horse is soon curried. Beau. & FL.

Having a part cut off or away; having the corners rounded or cut away. Cutaway coat, a coat whose skirts are cut away in front so as not to meet at the bottom.

Pertaining to the cuticle, or external coat of the skin; epidermal.

A long gown or surcoat (cut off in front), worn in the Middle Ages. It was sometimes embroidered or interwoven with gold. Also, a rich stuff from which the gown was made.

One of a breed of terriers with short legs, long body, and rough coat, originating in the country about the English and Scotch border.

A rough coat of mortar put upon a wall to give it the appearance of stone; rough-cast.

To deprive of gloss or brilliancy; to obscure; as, to deaden gilding by a coat of size.

To divest of the bark, husk, or exterior coating; to husk; to peel; to hull. "Great barley dried and decorticated." Arbuthnot.

The act of stripping off the bark, rind, hull, or outer coat.

part; to separate or disunite; to disengage; -- the opposite of attach; as, to detach the coats of a bulbous root from each other; to detach a man from a leader or from a party.

An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish the bearings of two persons, which would otherwise be the same. See Augmentation, and Marks of cadency, under Cadency.

dangerous contagious disease in which the air passages, and especially the throat, become coated with a false membrane, produced by the solidification of an inflammatory exudation. Cf. Group.

To divest of coat of mail. Spenser.

vegetable body; as, a dissecting aneurism, one which makes its way between or within the coats of an artery.

f. And made us doff our easy robes of peace. Shak. At night, or in the rain, He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn. Emerson.

A kind of woolen stuff. [Obs.] "Some doily petticoats." Dryden. A fool and a doily stuff, would now and then find days of grace, and be worn for variety. Congreve.