фрак, tailcoat: a man's formal coat, fitted at the waist with long tails at the back, which a man of standing wore on visits, at the theatre and on formal occasions. It is in a tailcoat that the drunkard who pursues Nastenka on the embankment appears, an elderly gentleman of respectable age but of most disreputable gait, and the garment accentuates the contrast between his decorous appearance and his behaviour.
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