Other forms: cots
A cot is the small bed with high barred sides that a baby sleeps in, so they cannot roll or climb out. The bars, the thin firm mattress, the mobile turning slowly above it.
That is British English. In American English a cot is a light folding bed you take camping or put a guest on, and the baby's bed is a crib — one word, two pieces of furniture, depending on the country. A child sleeps in a cot until about two and then moves to a proper bed. A travel cot is the folding kind you take to a hotel. Cot death is the British term for the sudden unexplained death of a sleeping baby, and American English calls the same thing SIDS.
1nouncot(British) a baby's bed with high barred sides.
“He fell asleep in the car, and we moved him into the cot without waking him.”
synonyms: crib
2nouncamp(American) a light folding bed.
“There was a cot made up for me in the study.”
synonyms: camp bed
cot is a bed.
Also accepted in games: crib
Cot came into English from Hindi khat, which goes back through Prakrit to the Sanskrit khatva, a bedstead. The word arrived naming a light frame bed, and the two modern meanings sit either side of that: the camp bed in America, the baby's bed in Britain.
Sanskrit
खट्वा — bedstead
pra-sau
𑀔𑀝𑁆𑀝𑀸
Hindi
खाट
English, today
cot
Borrowed from Hindi खाट, from pra-sau 𑀔𑀝𑁆𑀝𑀸, from Sanskrit खट्वा (“bedstead”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA