ˈcow-gate, -gait
[f. cow n.1 + gate, gait going, walk: cf. sheep-walk. It was originally a syntactic combination, with ky-gates, kine-gates = cows' gates in pl.]
A pasture over which a cow may range; pasture for a cow, e.g. in a common field.
| 1597 Wills & Inv. N.C. II. 277 To Thomas Hall..the howse that William Walton dwelt in, and vj kye-gaytes, in Wingait grainge. 1607–8 N. Riding Records IV. 136 Conveyance of one messuage in Ebberston with fower kyne⁓gaites. 1788 W. Marshall Yorksh. (1796) I. 41 Not to let..a cow-gait to a cottager. 1802 Hull Advertiser 17 Apr. 1/2 Some good Cow Gates at Maiden Hills to be let. 1806 A. Young Agric. Essex (1813) I. 50 On the enclosure of Great and Little Chesterford, the cottagers that had cow-gates on the commons, had allotments of land, which they now cultivate in wheat, potatoes, etc. 1884 Cheshire Gloss. (E.D.S.), Cow-gate, the right to pasture a cow on common land. Many of the farms at Frodsham have so many cow-gates on Frodsham marsh according to the size of the farm. |