In this mini episode, you will learn the idiom “The coast is clear.”
Episode 365 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the idiom “The coast is clear.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, this is Jiuqian from Jilin, China. Now you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 365 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting and useful expression.
The expression is “The coast is clear.” The coast is clear. That’s spelled the, coast: c-o-a-s-t, is, clear: c-l-e-a-r. The coast is clear.
What does it mean if someone says, “The coast is clear”?
“The coast is clear” is an expression that means “Now is a safe time to do something without anybody seeing you.”
If you need to do something secret, or you need to escape, or you need to do something else, when nobody can see you, “The coast is clear” means “Nobody is watching now. Now is a good time to do something secret.”
If you are doing something, and you don’t want anybody to see you—you are doing something secret, or maybe you are doing something illegal—if it is a safe time to do that, you can say, “The coast is clear.” The coast is clear. Now you can do that thing. Now you can do that secret or surprise or illegal thing that you wanted to do.
Why does “The coast is clear” mean this? How did it get this meaning? Where does this expression come from?
First of all, do you know what the word coast means here? A coast is a place where the land meets the ocean. A place where the land meets the sea. That is the coast. Maybe you have heard the word coastline. That means the line at the edge of the land, where the land meets the ocean.
I’m not sure if there was one real incident, one real event, that is the origin of this meaning, but think of it like this:
Somebody was on a boat, and they needed to land the boat. They needed to go to the land, go to the beach, or the shore, or the coast. But, for some reason, they did not want anyone to see them. They were doing something secret. They were doing something illegal. I’m not sure what the story is. But they did not want anyone to see them when they got to the beach, when they got close to land. When someone learned that there was no one on the beach—there was no one there to see them to watch what they were doing, whatever it was—that person said, “The coast is clear.” The coast is safe. The coast is free of anyone watching. “Now is a good time for us to go onto the land.”
Or maybe it was somebody on land who wanted to make sure that nobody in a boat could see them doing something.
I guess I don’t really know the origin of this expression. But it doesn’t really matter because the meaning is the same either way. “The coast is clear” means “Nobody is watching us now. Now is a good time for us to do something secret or even illegal. No one can watch us now. The coast is clear.”
And that is “The coast is clear,” an interesting and useful expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 365 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Jiuqian recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!