turn coat

present singular third person turns coat · participle present turning coat · participle past turned coat · past turned coat

1. alternativeAlternative form of turn one's coat.

   Was this the price demanded of Kit for turning coat?

   2016, Alison Stuart, Exile's Return, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   They couldn't believe Indian soldiers who'd eaten the King's salt and been proud to serve in the army generation after generation could be suborned like that, buy their way out of prison camp by turning coat, come armed hand in hand with the Japs to fight their own countrymen, fight the very officers who had trained them, cared for them and earned their respect.

   1995, Peter Ward Fay, The Forgotten Army, →ISBN, page 5

   He resigned, recused himself, sidestepped, and turned coat more than anyone else of his time; in seventeenth-century New England terms, it was as if, through the years of captivity, he had played both Moses and Pharoah's adviser.

   2015, Stacy Schiff, The Witches, →ISBN, page 229

plural turn coats

1. alternativeAlternative form of turncoat.

   That was why he knew in his mind she was a turn coat.

   2011, Simma Leslie, The Sister and Mcguire, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Because of this and various other reasons, the early soldiers and generals at Fort Pitt considered him a “turn coat” and renegade traitor of the Americans.

   2011, John D. Schalcosky, Ross Township, →ISBN

   We spoiled an attack on members of our team and reduced the number of turn coats by fourteen.

   2015, James Colson, The Forever Man: Modern Day Templar Knights, →ISBN