Coot

//kuːt// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.
  2. 2
    Body louse (Pediculus humanus). slang
  3. 3
    slate-black slow-flying birds somewhat resembling ducks wordnet
  4. 4
    A foolish or eccentric fellow UK, colloquial

    "A silly coot"

Synonyms

All synonyms
bizarrobody lousechochacrackpotcrankdoughnut

Example

More examples

"Tom can't tell a coot from a moorhen."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English cote, coote, cute, cuytt (“coot”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word, or borrowed from Middle Dutch coet, cuut, kuut (“coot”) (whence modern Dutch koet and meerkoet (“coot”)). Possibly related to Middle High German kūz, kūze (modern German Kauz (“owl”)), Old English cȳta (“kite, bittern”) (whence English kite), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kūts (“bird of prey”). See kite.

Etymology 2

Compare cootie.

Related phrases

American cootAndean cootCaribbean cootEurasian cootFulica cornuta)Hawaiian cootbald as a cootcracked as a cootcrazy as a cootdaffy as a cootdaft as a cootdeaf as a coot

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.