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Coast vs Littoral - What's the difference?

coast | littoral |

As nouns the difference between coast and littoral

is that coast is the side or edge of something while littoral is a shore.

As a verb coast

is to glide along without adding energy.

As an adjective littoral is

of or relating to the shore, especially the seashore.

coast

English

(wikipedia coast)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) The side or edge of something.
    • (Sir Isaac Newton)
  • The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.
    • The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches.
  • (obsolete) A region of land; a district or country.
  • * 1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 2:
    • Then Herod perceavynge that he was moocked off the wyse men, was excedynge wroth, and sent forth and slue all the chyldren that were in bethleem, and in all the costes thereof […].
  • *, II.ii.3:
    • P. Crescentius, in his lib.'' 1 ''de agric. cap. 5, is very copious in this subject, how a house should be wholesomely sited, in a good coast , good air, wind, etc.
  • (obsolete) A region of the air or heavens.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iii:
    • the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell […].

    Hypernyms

    * shore, shoreline

    Hyponyms

    * oceanfront, seashore

    Derived terms

    * coast fox * coast guard, coastguard * coast rat * coast-to-coast * coastal * coaster * coastland * coastline * coastward * coastwatcher * coastwise

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To glide along without adding energy.
    • When I ran out of gas, fortunately I managed to coast into a nearby gas station.
  • (nautical) To sail along a coast.
  • * Arbuthnot
    • The ancients coasted only in their navigation.
  • Applied to human behavior, to make a minimal effort, to continue to do something in a routine way. This implies lack of initiative and effort.
  • * November 2 2014 , Daniel Taylor, " Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United," guardian.co.uk
    • Yet the truth is that City would probably have been coasting by that point if the referee, Michael Oliver, had not turned down three separate penalties, at least two of which could be accurately described as certainties.
  • (obsolete) To draw near to; to approach; to keep near, or by the side of.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Anon she hears them chant it lustily, / And all in haste she coasteth to the cry.
    (Hakluyt)
  • (obsolete) To sail by or near; to follow the coastline of.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
    • Nearchus, not knowing the compass, was fain to coast that shore.
  • (obsolete) To conduct along a coast or river bank.
  • * Hakluyt
    • The Indians coasted me along the river.
  • (US, dialect) To slide downhill; to slide on a sled upon snow or ice.

    • Anagrams

    * * * * * *

    littoral

    English

    (wikipedia)

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of or relating to the shore, especially the seashore.

    • Usage notes

    Specifically refers to the water at the shore, rather than the land, particularly in the phrase littoral zone.

    Quotations

    "During his tenure, 'From the Sea' became the Navy-Marine Corps joint strategic concept, wherein the Navy and Marine Corps reoriented doctrinal focus toward littoral warfare." ? Semper Fidelis Memorandum for Retired Marines, Volume 58, No. 2

    Synonyms

    * (relating to the seashore) intertidal

    Coordinate terms

    * coastal

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A shore.
  • * 1921 , Sir Charles Eliot
    • ...these Chams belonged to the Malay-Polynesian group and their distribution along the littoral suggests that they were invaders from the sea...
  • The zone of a coast between high tide and low tide levels.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
    • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=6 citation , passage=The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land. It rose in places, black and sharp against the velvety indigo, over her dipping bow, though most of the low littoral was wrapped in obscurity.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=
    • , title=Internal Combustion , chapter=2 citation , passage=Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.}}

    Synonyms

    * (zone between high- and low-tide) intertidal zone, foreshore

    Related terms

    * lido

    Derived terms

    * circumlittoral * infralittoral * sublittoral * supralittoral

    References

    Anagrams

    * ----