redcoat

plural redcoats · alternative red coat · alternative red-coat

1. historicalA British soldier (stemming from the military uniform of British infantry since the 17th century).

   The street sounds to the soldiers’ tread, / And out we troop to see: / A single redcoat turns his head, / He turns and looks at me.

   1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XXII”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 32

   1 more example

   He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon; / And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon, / When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor, / A red-coat troop came marching— / Marching—marching— / King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

   1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 2, stanza I, pages 48–49

   Synonyms: lobsterback

2. A member of the entertainment staff at Butlin's holiday camps in the United Kingdom, who wear red blazers.

   The series ran from 1980 until 1988, and won a BAFTA for Best Comedy Series in 1984. It was based on Perry’s experiences working as a Redcoat in Butlins.

   2013 May 16, Mirror News

3. slangkenningA fox.

   Hurriedly he made his way around one end of the pond to the spot where he had first sighted the redcoat.

   1947, Pennsylvania Game News, page 30

present singular third person redcoats · participle present redcoating · participle past redcoated · past redcoated · alternative red coat · alternative red-coat

1. intransitiverareTo work as a redcoat (Butlin's entertainer).