cot

A small, crudely-formed boat.

Noun Canada, Philippines

  1. A simple bed, especially one for portable or temporary purposes.
    • There was a flickering of lanterns about the camp that night, and a rumor that brought men out of their cots to the tent doors, a paddling of the naked feet of doolie-bearers and the rush of a galloping horse. - 1889,...

    Synonyms: camp bed

  2. A bed for infants or small children, with high, often slatted, often moveable sides.

    Synonyms: crib

  3. A wooden bed frame, slung by its corners from a beam, in which officers slept before the introduction of bunks.

Origin

Borrowed from Hindi खाट (khāṭ), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀔𑀝𑁆𑀝𑀸 (khaṭṭā), from Sanskrit खट्वा (khaṭvā, “bedstead”).

Forms

cots

Derived

carrycot chuck one's toys out of the cot cot-bed cot-caught merger cot death cotless Cotman fingercot finger cot life cot meat-safe cot pigscot portacot three hots and a cot throw one's rattle out of the cot throw one's toys out of the cot

Noun archaic

  1. A cottage or small homestead.
    • the sheltered cot, the cultivated farm - 1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC:
    • One evening […] we were on a sudden, greatly astonished, by hearing a violent knocking on the outward Door of our rustic Cot. - 1790, Jane Austen, “Love and Freindship”, in Juvenilia:
    • 1898, Ethna Carbery, "Roddy McCorley" (poem). Oh, see the fleet-foot hosts of men who speed with faces wan / From farmstead and from thresher's cot along the banks of Ban
  2. A pen, coop, or similar shelter for small domestic animals, such as sheep or pigeons.

    Synonyms: cote

Origin

From Middle English cot, cote, from Old English cot and cote (“cot, cottage”), from Proto-Germanic *kutą, *kutǭ (compare Old Norse kot, Middle High German kūz (“execution pit”)), from Scythian (compare Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬙𐬀 (kata, “chamber”)). Cognate to Dutch kot (“student room; small homestead”). Doublet of cote; more distantly related to cottage.

Forms

cots

Related

coscet cosset cote cotter

Derived

bell cot cothouse cotland cot-quean

Noun Entry 3

  1. A small, crudely-formed boat.

Origin

From Irish coite, coit (“small boat”), possibly from Medieval Latin cattia (“pan”).

Forms

cots

Noun Entry 4

  1. A cover or sheath; a fingerstall.
    • a roller cot (the clothing of a drawing roller in a spinning frame)
    • a cot for a sore finger

Origin

From dialectal cot, cote, partly from Middle English cot (“matted wool”), from Old English *cot, *cotta, from Proto-Germanic *kuttô (“woolen fabric, wool covering”); and partly from Middle English cot, cote (“tunic, coat”), from Old French cote, from the same Germanic source (see English coat). Possibly influenced by English cotton.

Forms

cots cote

Noun obsolete

  1. A man who does household work normally associated with women.
    • You know, that being an old bachelor, and somewhat of an epicure, he is at home, what the vulgar call a cot; and has laid down his spontoon for the tasting spoon, converted his sword into a carving knife, and his sash...

Origin

Contraction of cot-quean.

Forms

cots

Noun dated

  1. vulva; vagina.

Origin

Variant of cock