the coast is clear

English

Etymology

Compare Spanish no hay moros en la costa. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (General American, mirror–nearer merger) IPA^(key): /ðə ˌkoʊst ɪz ˈklɪəɹ/

Phrase

the coast is clear

1. (idiomatic) There is no danger; one can freely pass through a region without risk of discovery.

   Wait there, watch the back of the building, and whistle when the coast is clear.

   • 1921, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan the Terrible, Grosset & Dunlap, page 222:

     Seeing that the coast was clear, Tarzan stepped into the darkened entrance […]

   • 1945, Christopher Isherwood, Prater Violet, New York: Random House, published [1956], →LCCN, page 94:

     Sometimes Dorothy herself left me. She had plenty of friends in the studio, and would slip away for a chat when the coast seemed clear.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:the coast is clear.

Translations

there is no danger

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 没有危险

• Danish: kysten er klar
• Finnish: reitti selvä, reitti on selvä
• German: die Luft ist rein
• Hungarian: tiszta a levegő
• Italian: via libera, nessun pericolo in vista
• Polish: czysto (pl)
• Portuguese: a barra está limpa
• Spanish: no hay moros en la costa
• Turkish: asayiş berkemal