/ kəʊtʃ; NAmE koʊtʃ/ noun , verb
■ noun
1.
[ C ] a person who trains a person or team in sport :
a basketball / football / tennis, etc. coach
Italy's national coach
2.
[ C ] ( BrE ) a person who gives private lessons to sb, often to prepare them for an exam :
a maths coach
3.
[ C ] = life coach
4.
[ C ] ( BrE ) a comfortable bus for carrying passengers over long distances :
They went to Italy on a coach tour .
Travel is by coach overnight to Berlin.
a coach station (= where coaches start and end their journey)
a coach party (= a group of people travelling together on a coach)
5.
[ C ] ( BrE ) = carriage :
a railway coach
6.
[ C ] a large closed vehicle with four wheels, pulled by horses, used in the past for carrying passengers
—see also stagecoach
7.
[ U ] ( NAmE ) the cheapest seats in a plane :
to fly coach
coach fares / passengers / seats
•
IDIOMS
see drive verb
■ verb coach sb (in / for sth)
1.
to train sb to play a sport, to do a job better, or to improve a skill :
[ vn ]
Her father coached her for the Olympics.
She has coached hundreds of young singers.
He coaches basketball and soccer.
[also vn to inf ]
2.
[ vn ] ( especially BrE ) to give a student extra teaching in a particular subject especially so that they will pass an exam
3.
coach sb (in / on sth) to give sb special instructions for what they should do or say in a particular situation :
[ vn ]
They believed the witnesses had been coached on what to say.
[also vn to inf ]
••
WORD ORIGIN
noun senses 3 to 7 mid 16th cent. (in sense 6): from French coche , from Hungarian kocsi (szekér) (wagon) from Kocs , a town in Hungary.
noun senses 1 to 3 and verb early 18th cent. (as a verb): figuratively from coach referring to a vehicle.