Definition of "waistcoat" []

• A garment formerly worn by men under a doublet. (noun)
• Chiefly British A short, sleeveless, collarless garment worn especially over a shirt and often under a suit jacket; a vest. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The waistcoat is important, see, because the colors denote certain ranks."
• "He had a tuft of white hair at the back of his dark head, like the cotton-tail of a rabbit, and as well as corduroy breeches he wore a rabbit-skin waistcoat, and he was a great nuisance to gamekeepers, who called him a poacher; whereas all he did was to let the rabbits out of the snares when it was kind to, and destroy the snares."
• "And this was the first and last time we ever saw Jack London arrayed in waistcoat and starched collar."