noun
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a layer or film spread over a surface for protection or decoration
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a heavy fabric suitable for coats
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dialect a severe rebuke; ticking-off
Etymology
Origin of coating
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After the first uncrewed test flight, Artemis I, engineers found that chunks of the heat shield's coating had cracked and broken away during a two‑stage "skip" re‑entry manoeuvre.
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
“She had difficulties already in her life, and there’s no sugar coating that. So we had to navigate this argument that what social-media addiction does is it preys upon the vulnerable more times than not.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026
It’s a Wednesday afternoon in West Hollywood, one day after the city was blanketed in a light coating of rain.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026
This coating is made up of complex sugar molecules that form a gel-like layer on the cell surface.
From Science Daily • Feb. 25, 2026
Aldrin, which is 100 times as toxic as DDT to pheasants, is now widely used as a seed coating.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.