Black's Law Dictionary (2nd edition)dictionaries

Goat, Gote

In old English law. A contrivance or structure for draining waters out of the land into the sea. Callis describee goats as “usual engines erected and built with portcullises and doors of timber and stone or brick. Invented first in Lower Ger-mnny.” Callis, Sewers, (91.) 112, 113. Cow-ell defines “gote,” a ditch, eewer, or gutter

Source: Black’s Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)