Meanings
cottager1
plural cottagers
- A person who has the tenure of a cottage, usually also the occupant.
A cottager, I mark’d a throne Of half the world as all my own, And murmur’d at such lowly lot!
1827, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Tamerlane and Other Poems2 more examples
The silver hair and benevolent countenance of the aged cottager, won my reverence; while the gentle manners of the girl enticed my love.
1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter III, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 48I don't like shoppy people. I think we are far better off, knowing only cottagers and labourers, and people without pretence.
1854 September – 1855 January, [Elizabeth Gaskell], “Roses and Thorns”, in North and South. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1855, →OCLC, page 23
cottager2
plural cottagers
- UKslangOne who engages in sex in public lavatories; a practitioner of cottaging.
Cottager3
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
cottager · noun
From cottage (“small hut”) + -er (demonym suffix); compare cotter.
Full word history & related roots →cottager · noun
From cottage (“to have sex in a public lavatory”) + -er (agent noun suffix).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Latin casarius
- casariusa person who has the tenure of a cottage
Scottish Gaelic màlair
- màlaira person who has the tenure of a cottage
Cite this entry
cottager. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cottager
“cottager.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cottager. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cottager,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cottager.
Source: cottager on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.