redcoat

• red coat, red-coat

Bahuvrihi compound of red +‎ coat.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛdˌkoʊt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

redcoat (plural redcoats)

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

   Synonym: lobsterback

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

2. A member of the entertainment staff at Butlin's holiday camps in the United Kingdom, who wear red blazers.
   • 2013 May 16, Mirror News‎^[1]:

     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.

3. (slang, kenning) A fox.
   • 1947, Pennsylvania Game News, page 30:

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

• The soldier and entertainment staff uses are sometimes capitalized.

redcoat (third-person singular simple present redcoats, present participle redcoating, simple past and past participle redcoated)

1. (intransitive, very rare) To work as a redcoat (Butlin's entertainer).

• Art Deco, cordate