Chiefly dial. [In sense 1, app. a frequentative of COT v.2; but it is uncertain whether all the senses belong to one and the same word.]
1. trans. and intr. To form into a tangled mass; to entangle, mat, ‘cot.’
1781. J. Hutton, Tour Caves, Gloss., Cotterd, entangled.
1796. Marshall, Rur. Econ. Yorkshire (ed. 2), Gloss., Cotter, to entangle; as thread, or the hair.
1811. Willan, W. Riding Yorksh. Gloss., Cottered, Cotted, entangled, matted together. The word is usually applied to hair, or wool.
1877. E. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss, Cottered, matted, entangled; applied to hair or wool. [So in northern dial. glossaries generally.]
2. trans. To clot, coagulate, congeal.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., II. 338. A coffen of bones cottered with clods of claie.
1781. J. Hutton, Tour Caves, Gloss., Cotterd … clotted.
1825–79. Jamieson, s.v., To cotter eggs, to drop them into a pan, and stir them round with a little butter, till edible.
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Cottered … coagulated.
3. intr. with up: To shrivel or shrink up.
1817. J. Bell, Treat. Confect. (Newcastle), III. 136. If you boil the syrup too strong, the plums will cotter up to half the size.
1876. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Cottered up, shrivelled.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Cother-up, to become shrunken, withered or dried up.
1877. E. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss., Cottered, crumpled, shrunk, run-up; as applied to woollen or cotton goods.
4. To crowd together.
1876. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Cottering, pres. part., crowding together as people over the fire-side.
Hence Cottered ppl. a.; Cottering vbl. sb., fig. an entanglement, difficulty (Whitby Gloss.).
