dial. Also coathe, cawthe. [f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. ‘To faint’ (Forby, Voc. E. Anglia).
2. trans. To give (sheep) the ‘coe’ or rot.
1867. J. R. Wise, New Forest (1880), 281. The springs in the New Forest are said ‘to cothe’ the sheep,—that is, to disease their livers.
1880. E. Cornw. Gloss., s.v. Cawed, A sheep affected by that disease elsewhere known as rot is cawed. In Dorset it is a-cothed.
1884. West. Morn. News, 20 Dec., 8/6. In 1879 there was a great loss among their flocks in Devon, a greater part of them being cawthed.
