cotter
1a pin, wedge, key, or the like, fitted or driven into an opening to secure something or hold parts together.
to secure with a cotter.
Origin of cotter
1Other definitions for cotter (2 of 2)
Scot. a person occupying a plot of land and cottage, paid for in services.
Origin of cotter
2Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cotter in a sentence
Some cotters were at hand and seeing them gave me the idea of using one leg, with the eye part, as a tongue.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2 | VariousThis forms an abutment for supporting the ladle in the gudgeon band, being secured to this last by latch bolts and cotters.
The well probably supplied water to the old cotters and retainers of Tranmere Hall five hundred years ago.
Passages From the English Notebooks, Volume 1 | Nathaniel HawthorneThe breaking of a connecting-rod, or its disconnection by the loss of cotters, fracture of the straps, &c.
Practical Rules for the Management of a Locomotive Engine | Charles Hutton GregoryIngram was about as odd as Sheila herself in the attention he paid to those wretched cotters and their doings.
British Dictionary definitions for cotter (1 of 2)
/ (ˈkɒtə) machinery /
any part, such as a pin, wedge, key, etc, that is used to secure two other parts so that relative motion between them is prevented
short for cotter pin
(tr) to secure (two parts) with a cotter
Origin of cotter
1British Dictionary definitions for cotter (2 of 2)
/ (ˈkɒtə) /
Also called: cottier English history a villein in late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman times occupying a cottage and land in return for labour
Also called: cottar a peasant occupying a cottage and land in the Scottish Highlands under the same tenure as an Irish cottier
Origin of cotter
2- See also cottier (def. 2), cottager (def. 1)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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