*otter*

n. Allotment. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, blots; esp. a device for absorbing superfluous ink. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Com.) A wastebook, in which entries of transactions are made as they take place. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who lives in a boggy country; -- applied in derision to the lowest class of Irish. Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A participant in boycotting. [ 1913 Webster ]

p.a. [ See Besmut. ] Bespotted with mud or dirt. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ From Clot. ] To concrete into lumps; to clot. [ Obs. ] “Clottered blood.” Chapman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One joined in a plot. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ LL. cotarius, cottarius, coterius. See Cot. ] A cottager; a cottier. Burns. [ 1913 Webster ]

Through Sandwich Notch the West Wind sang
Good morrow to the cotter. Whittier. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To fasten with a cotter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A piece of wood or metal, commonly wedge-shaped, used for fastening together parts of a machine or structure. It is driven into an opening through one or all of the parts. [ See Illust. ] In the United States a cotter is commonly called a key. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A toggle. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. Dottard. ] Decayed. “Some old dotterel trees.” [ Obs. ] Ascham. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Dote, v. i. ] 1. (Zool.) A European bird of the Plover family (Eudromias morinellus, syn. Charadrius morinellus). It is tame and easily taken, and is popularly believed to imitate the movements of the fowler. [ 1913 Webster ]

In catching of dotterels we see how the foolish bird playeth the ape in gestures. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The ringed dotterel (or ring plover) is Charadrius hiaticula. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A silly fellow; a dupe; a gull. Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ G., lit. Twilight of the Gods; a modern mistranslation of the Old Icelandic Ragnarok, meaning, fate of the gods. RHUD ] (German mythology) 1. A myth about the ultimate destruction of the gods in a battle with evil.
Syn. -- Ragnarok, Twilight of the Gods. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. An opera by Richard Wagner. [ PJC ]

n. 1. One who jots down memoranda. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A memorandum book. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Lotteries [ Lot + -ery, as in brewery, bindery. ] 1. A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance; esp., a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, and the rest of the tickets are blanks. Fig.: An affair of chance. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The laws of the United States and of most of the States make private lotteries illegal, except in certain circumstances for charitable institutions; however, many of the states now conduct lotteries tehmselves as a revenue source. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. Allotment; thing allotted. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. oter, AS. otor; akin to D. & G. otter, Icel. otr, Dan. odder, Sw. utter, Lith. udra, Russ, vuidra, Gr. "y`dra water serpent, hydra, Skr. udra otter, and also to E. water. √137, 215. See Water, and cf. Hydra.] [1913 Webster]

1. (Zool.) Any carnivorous animal of the genera Lutra, Enhydra, and related genera of the family Mustelidae. Several species are described. They have large, flattish heads, short ears, and webbed toes. They are aquatic, and feed on fish. The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) also eats clams, crabs, starfish, abalone, and other marine animals; they may come to the surface, and lying on their backs using the stomach as a table, may be seen cracking open the shell of its prey with a rock. The common otter of Europe is Lutra vulgaris; the North American otter (or American otter) is Lutra Canadensis, which inhabits marshes, streams and rivers; other species inhabit South America and Asia. The North American otter adult is about three to four feet long (including the tail) and weighs from 10 to 30 pounds; the sea otter is commonly four feet long and 45 pounds (female) or 60 pounds (male). Their fur is soft and valuable, and in the nineteenth century they were hunted extensively. The sea otter was hunted to near extinction by 1900, and is now protected. Fewer than 3,000 sea otters are believed to live along the central California coast. [1913 Webster +PJC]

2. (Zool.) The larva of the ghost moth. It is very injurious to hop vines. [1913 Webster]

Otter hound,
Otter dog (Zool.), a small breed of hounds, used in England for hunting otters; see otterhound . --
Otter sheep. See Ancon sheep, under Ancon. --
Otter shell (Zool.), very large bivalve mollusk (Schizothaerus Nuttallii) found on the northwest coast of America. It is excellent food, and is extensively used by the Indians. --
Sea otter. (Zool.) See in the Vocabulary. [1913 Webster]

n. A corruption of Annotto. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A small hardy British hound having long pendulous ears and a thick coarse shaggy coat with an oily undercoat; bred in England for hunting otters. Called also otter dog. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who plots or schemes; a contriver; a conspirator; a schemer. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. potier. ] 1. One whose occupation is to make earthen vessels. Ps. ii. 9. [ 1913 Webster ]

The potter heard, and stopped his wheel. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who hawks crockery or earthenware. [ Prov. Eng. ] De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. One who pots meats or other eatables. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) The red-bellied terrapin. See Terrapin. [ 1913 Webster ]

Potter's asthma (Med.), emphysema of the lungs; -- so called because very prevalent among potters. Parkers. --
Potter's clay. See under Clay. --
Potter's field, a public burial place, especially in a city, for paupers, unknown persons, and criminals; -- so named from the field south of Jerusalem, mentioned in Matt. xxvii. 7. --
Potter's ore. See Alquifou. --
Potter's wheel, a horizontal revolving disk on which the clay is molded into form with the hands or tools. “My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel.” Shak. --
Potter wasp (Zool.), a small solitary wasp (Eumenes fraternal) which constructs a globular nest of mud and sand in which it deposits insect larvæ, such as cankerworms, as food for its young. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Pottered p. pr. & vb. n. Pottering. ] [ Cf. W. pwtio to poke, or OD. poteren to search one thoroughly, Sw. påta, peta, to pick, E. pother, put. ] 1. To busy one's self with trifles; to labor with little purpose, energy, of effect; to trifle; to putter; to pother.
Syn. -- putter; pother. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pottering about the Mile End cottages. Mrs. Humphry Ward. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To walk lazily or idly; to saunter. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To poke; to push; also, to disturb; to confuse; to bother. [ Prov. Eng. ] Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to potters. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pottern ore, a species of ore which, from its aptness to vitrify like the glazing of potter's wares, the miners call by this name. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Potteries [ F. poterie, fr. pot. See Pot. ] 1. The vessels or ware made by potters; earthenware, glazed and baked. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The place where earthen vessels are made. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The burning of a wad of pease straw at the end of harvest. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) The turnstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) An aquatic carnivore (Enhydris lutris syn. Enhydris marina) found in the North Pacific Ocean. Its fur is highly valued, especially by the Chinese. It is allied to the common otter, but is larger, with feet more decidedly webbed. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sea-otter's cabbage (Bot.), a gigantic kelp of the Pacific Ocean (Nereocystis Lutkeana). See Nereocystis. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ From Snot. ] To snivel; to cry or whine. [ Prov. Eng. ] Grose. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Etymol. uncertain. ] (Naut.) A rope going over a yardarm, used to bend a tripping line to, in sending down topgallant and royal yards in vessels of war; also, the short line supporting the heel of the sprit in a small boat. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Filth; abomination. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

To purge the snottery of our slimy time. Marston. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Folly. [ Obs. ] Gauden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who spots. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Teeter. ] A certain game of children; seesaw; -- called also titter-totter, and titter-cum-totter. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. See Teeter. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Tottered p. pr. & vb. n. Tottering. ] [ Probably for older tolter; cf. AS. tealtrian to totter, vacillate. Cf.Tilt to incline, Toddle, Tottle, Totty. ] 1. To shake so as to threaten a fall; to vacillate; to be unsteady; to stagger; as, an old man totters with age. “As a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.” Ps. lxii. 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To shake; to reel; to lean; to waver. [ 1913 Webster ]

Troy nods from high, and totters to her fall. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who totters. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a tottering manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Trembling or vaccilating, as if about to fall; unsteady; shaking. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]