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My trusty navy-issue peacoat is old as hell

What does issue mean here?

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It just means the peacoat was issued by the navy, as in standard army-issue – FumbleFingers Oct 8 '12 at 16:31
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Related to Issue (sense 2) at Oxford Dictionaries – Andrew Leach Oct 8 '12 at 16:33

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

OED sense 15c for issue reads:

An item or amount of something given out or distributed. orig. U.S.

And gives this specific example (amongst others):

  • 1919 Athenæum 8 Aug. 727/2 ― Anything supplied by the Army was an ‘issue’.
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Yup; this is it – it means the jacket was given to him (or "issued by") the Navy. It also implies the jacket was originally a navy uniform item, probably one that stayed in use even after the speaker got out of the navy. – J.R. Oct 8 '12 at 16:40
@Theo: no. Navy-issue is correct. – itsbruce Oct 8 '12 at 16:59
Oh so in this case, the speaker made a typo should have been "navy-issued" instead of "navy-issue"? – Theo Oct 8 '12 at 17:00
up vote 1 down vote

For completeness, consider also these senses of issue, from here:

4[UNCOUNTABLE] FORMAL the act of officially giving something to someone the issue of visitors' permits

a. something that is given to every member of a group She was wearing the heavy black jacket that was standard police issue.

5[UNCOUNTABLE] LEGAL someone's children He died without issue (=with no children).

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