Wiktionary
n. (context nautical English) A coat of heavy, navy-coloured wool, originally worn by sailors of European navies.
Wikipedia
A pea coat (or pea jacket, pilot jacket) is an outer coat, generally of a navy-coloured heavy wool, originally worn by sailors of European and later American navies. Pea coats are characterized by short length, broad lapels, double-breasted fronts, often large wooden, metal or plastic buttons, and vertical or slash pockets. References to the pea jacket appear in American newspapers at least as early as the 1720s, and modern renditions still maintain the original design and composition.
A bridge coat is a pea coat that extends to the thighs, and is a uniform exclusively for officers and chief petty officers. The reefer is for officers and chief petty officers only, and is identical to the basic design but usually has gold buttons and epaulettes. Only officers wear the epaulettes.
Usage examples of "pea coat".
When we were through, there was sweat on his face and he seemed red and hot He still wore his pea coat.
The homeless man pulled his free hand out of his navy pea coat and came out holding a fully loaded .
One Friday afternoon in mid-December, a merchant seaman in pea coat and watchcap walked up Seventh Avenue to Penn Station.
Johnny put his eye to one of the diamond shapes cut into the balustrade and saw a burly man who was bundled up in a thick Navy pea coat.
It was mid-September 1965 and the frigid spray from the North Sea deposited a dewlike film on the sailor's dark pea coat.
Removing his pea coat, he tossed it onto a chair, setting the flashlight on top of it.
There were only two customers, a young black kid in an oversize pea coat who seemed to be dozing, and an old white boozer who was sipping coffee from a thick white porcelain mug.
Briefly slitting open an eye, Christy glimpsed her sister's navy pea coat.
He was wearing the white coveralls and insulated work boots and the same blue Navy pea coat that he had worn at the Howard Johnson's.