See also: Colter

English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Inherited from Middle English culter, from Old English culter, from Latin culter (a knife). For the phonetic development, see poultry.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

colter (plural colters)

  1. (US) A knife or cutter attached to the beam of a plow to cut the sward, in advance of the plowshare and moldboard.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. [], London: [] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      I lately left a furrow, one or twayne, / Unplough'd, the which my coulter hath not cleft […].
    • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica:
      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.
    • 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 150:
      With colters bright the rushy sward bisect, / And in new veins the gushing rills direct [] .
  2. (US) The part of a seed drill that makes the furrow for the seed.

Translations edit

References edit

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

Anagrams edit

Middle English edit

Noun edit

colter

  1. Alternative form of culter