A force employed to guard the coast. Also attrib.
In Great Britain the Coast Guard was originally employed under the Customs department to prevent smuggling (hence called the Preventive Service); the force was in 1856 transferred to the Admiralty, to be used as a general police force for the coast, available also as a defensive force.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. i. 7. So Nicholas is to be one of the Coast Guard.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., III. viii. 722. The forces employed in the coast-guard and revenue cruisers.
1879. G. Fennell, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 186/2. There ought to be a constant inspection … entrusted to the coast-guard service, which we believe has but little of its old original work of looking after smugglers.
Mod. The white-washed coast-guard station on the cliff.
Hence Coastguard-man (also coastguardsman), a member of the coast-guard.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 197. A coastguard-man who had … been a smuggler.
1870. Miss Bridgman, R. Lynne, II. xiv. 291. He looked like a coastguardsman.
