cotter

plural cotters

1. engineeringA pin or wedge inserted through a slot to hold machine parts together.

   The chains are secured to each end of the cast-iron arches by cotters.

   1949 November and December, “Notes and News: The High Level Bridge, Newcastle”, in Railway Magazine, page 407

2. informalA cotter pin.

present singular third person cotters · participle present cottering · participle past cottered · past cottered

1. transitiveTo fasten with a cotter.

   She found Esco by the barn. He was trying to cotter a cart-wheel with a peg he had whittled from a locust branch, driving it in with a hand sledge

   1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 39

plural cotters · alternative cottar

1. historicalA peasant who performed labour in exchange for the right to live in a cottage.

   The toil-worn Cotter frae his labour goes,— / This night his weekly moil is at an end,— / Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes, […]

   1786, Robert Burns, The Cotter's Saturday Night

   Synonyms: coscet, cottager

plural Cotters · alternative Cottier

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableA minor city in Baxter County, Arkansas, United States.
3. countableuncountableA minor city in Louisa County, Iowa, United States.