Word.ws English Dictionary

cotter

UK/kɒtə//kɑtɚ/

cotter noun: a pin or wedge inserted through a slot to hold machine parts together.

cotter: a pin or wedge inserted through a slot to hold machine parts together
Image: Andy Dingley (scanner), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

cotter (plural cotters)

  1. A 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. (informal) A cotter pin.

Verb

cotter (third-person singular simple present cotters, present participle cottering, simple past and past participle cottered)

  1. (transitive) To 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 sledge1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 39

Noun (2)

cotter (plural cotters)

  1. (historical) A 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

Proper noun capitalized: Cotter

Cotter (countable and uncountable, plural Cotters)

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

cotter meaning in Tamil

cotter in Tamil

ஆப்பு ஆணி, ஆப்புச்சாவி, ஆப்பு, அப்புச் சாவி, ஆப்புச் சாவி

Synonyms of cotter

Forms of cotter

Noun
pluralcotters
alternative formcottar
Verb
third-person singular presentcotters
present participlecottering
past participlecottered
pastcottered
Proper noun
pluralCotters
alternative formCottier

Plural of cotter: cotters

Origin of cotter

Unknown.

From Middle English cotter, cotere, kottere, koter, cotier, equivalent to cot (“cottage”) + -er, from Old English cot. Compare Old French coter, cotier.

Words formed from cotter

Phrases with cotter

Words that rhyme with cotter

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cotter

What does cotter mean?
Cotter means a pin or wedge inserted through a slot to hold machine parts together.
What is cotter in Tamil?
Cotter in Tamil is ஆப்பு ஆணி, ஆப்புச்சாவி, ஆப்பு. See Cotter meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cotter?
Cotter can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cotter?
Cotter is pronounced /kɒtə/ (UK).
What is the plural of cotter?
The plural of cotter is cotters.

Words near cotter in the dictionary

  1. Cottees
  2. Cotten
  3. Cottenham
  4. Cottenham Park
  5. Cottens
  6. cotter
  7. cotter pin
  8. cotter pins
  9. cottered
  10. Cotterell
  11. Cotterells

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cotter (page history and authors); Cotter (page history and authors); cotter (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-cotter.wav.

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