colter

English

Alternative forms

• coulter (mostly Commonwealth)

Etymology

From Old English culter, from Latin culter (“a knife”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈkəʊltə/
• (US) IPA: /ˈkoʊltəɹ/

Noun

colter (plural colters)

1. A knife or cutter attached to the beam of a plow to cut the sward, in advance of the plowshare and moldboard.
   • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

     What is it but a servitude like that impos'd by the Philistims, not to be allow'd the sharpning of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licencing forges.

2. The part of a seed drill that makes the furrow for the seed.

Anagrams

• lector

References

• Chambers's Etymological Dictionary, 1896, p. 82