How to Use coot in a Sentence

coot

noun
  • Don't mind him—he's just a crazy old coot.
  • Her old coot of a husband doddered over to see what the trouble was.
    George Saunders, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2016
  • At the edge of the property is a pond where swans, mallards and coots paddle around.
    Pete Wells, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2018
  • Great egrets and snowy egrets, along with blue herons, and the inevitable coot, seem to be year-round residents.
    Tom Stienstra, SFChronicle.com, 30 Jan. 2020
  • Robert Forster is outstanding as the grizzled old coot.
    Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2018
  • On someone else this fate might be a crusher, but Sportcoat is the type of stubborn coot on whom doom roosts lightly, if at all.
    Junot Díaz, New York Times, 29 Feb. 2020
  • Spotted salamanders breed here and night herons roost, alongside coots and grebes.
    Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 13 May 2020
  • The movie gives us just enough horny youngsters, references to pot, and old coots with grudges to fill screen time until the special-effects guys go to work.
    John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Mar. 2018
  • Even playing in front of tiny audiences, this ol’ coot flouncing about onstage, is a blast.
    Tristram Lozaw, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Apr. 2023
  • Five of them — including an American coot and a western gull — have died.
    Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2021
  • Dern plays crusty old coots as well as anyone in the business, but the background on his lonely golden years is unexplored.
    Colin Covert, Detroit Free Press, 1 Mar. 2018
  • Although coot chicks and grebe chicks are the same size, the young grebes are probably protected by riding on their parents' backs.
    Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 30 Nov. 2017
  • On a recent cool morning here, mallards flew overhead, pelicans swam on the lake, coots picked bugs out of the mud, and a lone doe sauntered through tall grass.
    Adam Popescu, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2018
  • Under the proposal, goose, duck and coot hunting will be allowed only on boat.
    Will Houston, The Mercury News, 6 June 2019
  • The coot is the late Brian Dennehy, bringing low-key charm to his friendship with Lucas Jaye, who plays a kid helping his mom clear out her late sister's garbage house.
    Star Tribune, 17 Dec. 2020
  • Most of my fellow members of the media laughed at Harry and portrayed him as a stubborn ol’ coot who probably belonged in the nuthouse.
    oregonlive, 18 May 2020
  • In fact, American coot families are never far from their nests.
    Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 30 Nov. 2017
  • At the Laguna Grande restoration area, American coots bob in open water fringed with cattails.
    Ian James, AZCentral.com, 19 Apr. 2020
  • Officials found three oiled birds Sunday — a brown pelican, an American coot and a duck.
    Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2021
  • Birds like woodpeckers, heron, egrets, ibis, coots, ducks and osprey can be found in the park along with alligators, otters and manatees.
    Patrick Connolly, orlandosentinel.com, 10 July 2019
  • But Wayne hasn’t revealed his intentions to the property’s owner, a withered old coot who greets all visitors with a wave of his shotgun.
    John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Mar. 2022
  • Waterfowl, including great egrets and American coots, are finding the changes to their liking.
    Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Bruce Arians is a wily old coot who can find a lot of ways to beat a defense, but his offensive line just shouldn’t be able to match up with the Eagles’ defensive front, even without Fletcher Cox.
    Philly.com Staff, Philly.com, 5 Oct. 2017
  • That doesn’t mean this leisurely portrait of its title character, a cantankerous old coot (Harry Dean Stanton, in one of his last roles), is any more eventful at the end than at the beginning.
    Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2017
  • Other waterfowl, such as the American coot and the northern shoveler, are even more numerous.
    Elena Bruess, San Antonio Express-News, 8 Jan. 2022
  • Not only can birders spot ducks, geese, grebes and coots; a number of warblers, sparrows, woodpeckers, birds of prey including bald eagles, golden eagles and ospreys, and much more also move through the area.
    Michigan Wildlife Council, Detroit Free Press, 21 Aug. 2017
  • The dive bar's obituary probably has been written a thousand times, sometimes with an eloquence that would baffle the average coot who shuffles into these black holes, looking for a shot and a beer before the clock strikes noon.
    Tim Carman and Fritz Hahn, chicagotribune.com, 3 May 2017
  • The dive bar’s obituary probably has been written a thousand times, sometimes with an eloquence that would baffle the average coot who shuffles into these black holes, looking for a shot and a beer before the clock strikes noon.
    Atlanta Travel, ajc, 23 May 2017
  • Joe Biden is a vain, shallow, dishonest, foolish, self-serving, cynical, exploitative, dim old coot.
    Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 1 Apr. 2020
  • Birds that once wintered at Tulare Lake — ibises, blackbirds and American coots — are returning in increasing numbers.
    Shawn Hubler, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'coot.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: