Word.ws English Dictionary

cottaging

cottaging noun: sexual activity in a public lavatory, especially homosexual activity between men.

Noun

cottaging (uncountable)

  1. (UK, slang) Sexual activity in a public lavatory, especially homosexual activity between men.
    • Most homosexuals have at some periods in their lives been out 'trolling' and many of them admitted to 'cottaging' in their earlier days, especially those who lived outside London where this practice seems to be much more widely established.1960, Gordon Westwood, A Minority: A Report on the Life of the Male Homosexual in Great Britain, London: Longmans, →OCLC, page 76
    • "MSM," a term that is reportedly English social-work jargon for "men seeking sex with men," explores the reasons why men, including heterosexuals, cruise in English lavatories, which are, believe it or not, called "cottages." The text is made up of actual interviews with those who go "cottaging."1993 October 6, Anna Kisselgoff, “Upstart and Formal Styles in Montreal”, in The New York Times, page C14
  2. A seasonal activity involving a prolonged stay at one or more cottages; similar to visiting, but typically for a longer duration and at a seasonal home that one owns or rents.
    • This comparison between the commercial cottager and the private cottager begins to give us an insight into differences between the private cottager and the commercial cottager, a difference that has implications for the relation of cottaging to city life.2004, C. Michael Hall, Dieter K. Muller, Tourism, Mobility and Second Homes, page 69

Questions about cottaging

What does cottaging mean?
Cottaging means sexual activity in a public lavatory, especially homosexual activity between men.
What part of speech is cottaging?
Cottaging is a noun.

Words near cottaging in the dictionary

  1. cottager
  2. cottagers
  3. cottages
  4. cottages ornés
  5. cottagey
  6. cottaging
  7. cottagy
  8. cottah
  9. cottahs
  10. Cottam
  11. Cottams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cottaging (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-cottaging.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cottaging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cottaging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.