Also 5 kote, coote, 6–7 coat(e. [OE. cote fem., a parallel form to cot neut. (see COT sb.1), found also in MDu., MLG. and mod.G.]
† 1. A small detached house such as is occupied by poor people or laborers; a cot or cottage. Now only dial.
a. 1034. Law Cnut, in Thorpe, Laws, I. 418 (Bosw.). Gif hwilc man forstolen þingc ham to his cotan bringe.
c. 1160. Hatton Gosp., Matt. xxi. 13. To þeof-coten.
c. 1300. Havelok, 1141. I ne haue hws, y ne haue cote.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. VIII. 16. Bothe prynces paleyses and pore mennes cotes.
1382. Wyclif, Wisd. xi. 2. In desert places thei maden litil cotes [1388 litle housis].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 96. Coote, lytylle howse.
c. 1475. Children’s Bk., 48, in Babees Bk. (1868), 18. [As a ka]rle þat comys oute of a cote.
1519. Four Elements (1848), 30. Buyldynge nor house they have non at all But wodes cotes and cavys small.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 448. Call me Rosalind, and come euerie day to my Coat, and woe me.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., ix. (1628), 286. A Cote in our language is a little slight built country habitation.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. iv. She them dismist to their contented coates.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cote, a sorry, slight Country House or Hovel.
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Cote, a village, an isolated farm-house; as Beaumont-cote, Roose-cote. [In Sc. common in names of solitary shepherd’s houses or farms, as East Cote, West Cote, etc.; also in the comb. cote-house a cottar’s house.]
2. A slight building for sheltering small animals, as sheep, pigs, fowls, or for the storage of anything; a shed, stall; spec. a sheep-cote.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., III. 1081. Her cotes make biforne … and parte hem so betwene That every stye a moder wol sustene.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 8. Go se & vysyte oure wethers in the cote.
1549–62. Sternhold & H., Ps. xxiii. 2. He doth me folde in coates most safe.
1611. Bible, 2 Chron. xxxii. 28. Stalles for all maner of beasts, and coates for flocks.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 186. Where Shepherds pen thir Flocks at eeve In hurdl’d Cotes amid the field secure.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 177. Lean Hogs have been glad to creep into their Cotes.
1805. Luccock, Nat. Wool, 297. The produce of the Spanish cotes.
1865. Dixon, Holy Land, II. 46. The dove-seller kept his cotes for the accommodation of persons too poor to sacrifice a kid or lamb.
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Cote … a small building set apart for any special purpose; as Peat-cote, a house or place to put peat or turf in; Salt-cote, a place where salt was wont to be made on the sea-shore.
1876. Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Cote, a shed for small cattle, or fowls. [So in Dialect Glossaries of Sheffield, Cheshire, Shropshire, etc.]
b. Now chiefly in combination, as in dove-cote, hen-cote, sheep-cote, bell-cote (in which cot also occurs); and in more local use, pig-cote, swine-cote, peat-cote, salt-cote, etc., which see.
c. fig.
1868. Daily Tel., 9 Dec., 5/5. Every little human creature folded into the kindly cote of it [the Refuges Society] is a citizen the more, and a thief or a pauper the less.
3. Comb. See COT sb.1 4.
