sb. and a. [f. TURN v. + COAT sb. lit. one who turns his coat; cf. TURN v. 51.]
A. sb. One who changes his principles or party; a renegade; an apostate.
1557. Woodman, in Foxe, A. & M. (1570), 2193/2. I will beleue none of you all, for you be turne coates, and chaungelinges, and be wauering minded.
1579. Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 688. It sheweth what turne coates they were, which changed as euerie prince was affected.
a. 1632. G. Herbert, Outlandish Prov., § 929. Wine is a turne-coate (first a friend, then an enemy).
1777. Mme. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1907), II. 196. I am afraid Mrs. Wall is a turn-coat, and that George Berkeley has danced her to his party.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 567. The Tory who voted for those motions would run a great risk of being pointed at as a turncoat by the … Cavaliers.
† b. transf. applied to anything that changes in appearance or color. Also turn-coat-coloured.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 11. This is a maruellous turncote, for that it doth conforme it self to all settes and dispositions of the Ayre. Ibid., 12 b. Kaman the stone may well be called a turncote, for that it is now blacke, now white, now shamefast & blushing.
1608. Topsell, Serpents (1658), 672. Of a changeable colour, betwixt white, green, brown and yellow, for which occasion some have called it versicolor Chamæleon, that is, a turn-coat-coloured Chamæleon.
c. A coat renovated by being turned; in quot. fig.
1726. Gay, in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 65. Next week I shall have a new coat, and new buttons, for the birth-day, though … a turn-coat might have been more for my advantage.
B. adj. Of, pertaining to, or that is a turncoat.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lviii. 5. Hee peynteth out more expressely theire turnecote craftynesse.
1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, II. ii. Yond greasy turncoat gormandising prelate.
1706. Hearne, Collect., 3 Nov. (O.H.S.), I. 302. An old, rich,… turn-coat Dr.
1796. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Satire, Wks. 1812, III. 400. Turncoat Windham to no party true.
1876. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. II. 40. We have heard that the Commedia was … the revengeful satire of a disappointed Ghibelline, nay, worse, of a turncoat Guelph.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Turncoat v., intr. to play the turncoat, to change sides; Turncoated a., having the coat turned; Turncoatery, Turncoating vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Turncoatism, the action or practice of a turncoat.
1892. Pall Mall G., 4 July, 3/1. Whichever way I’ve voted, One or the other’s sure to swear that I’ve *turn-coated.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), III. xxi. 33. Translations are but as *turn-coated things at best, specially among languages that have advantages one of the other.
1841. Hampden, in Some Mem. (1871), 132. Apologising for his *turn-coaterie, saying, that those who now brought in the new Government would as soon turn them out if they came forward with the proposal of a fixed duty.
1624. Bp. Mountagu, Immed. Addr., A j b. To take notice of his dealing,… in his *turne-coating from side to side.
1888. Sunday Truth (Buffalo), 19 Aug., 2/3. The journals of both parties are going to ridiculous extremes in announcing the change of a few stray individuals from one side to the other. This *turn-coating business is nothing new.
1889. W. Roberts, in N. & Q., 7th Ser. VII. 41/1. The most barefaced and flagrant *turncoatism.
