cotter

• Rhymes: -ɒtə(ɹ)

Unknown

cotter (plural cotters)

1. (mechanical engineering) A pin or wedge inserted through a slot to hold machine parts together.
   • 1949 November and December, “Notes and News: The High Level Bridge, Newcastle”, in Railway Magazine, page 407:

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

2. (informal) A cotter pin.

Cotter (C on diagram)

The terms cotter and cotter pin are sometimes used interchangeably, although they have different functions. For a more detailed explanation see Wikipedia articles on cotter pin, cotter (pin), and split pin.

• cotter pin

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

1. (transitive) To fasten with a cotter.
   • 1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 39:

     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

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

• cottar

cotter (plural cotters)

1. (historical) A peasant who performed labour in exchange for the right to live in a cottage.
   • 1786, Robert Burns, The Cotter's Saturday Night:

     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, […]

• coscet
• cottager