cooter-backed adj Also cooter-back [In ref to the arched shell of the cooter n 1] S Atl, esp SC
Esp of a road: having an arched or crowned shape; hence v cooter-back to give (something) this shape.
1891 Watchman & Southron (Sumter SC) 2 Dec [5]/2, You can’t compare Hyperion to a Satyr, nor comfortable clay cooterback driveway to a cold and clammy mudhole, whose dead levelism is a perennial invitation to the water to settle and add slush to the prevailing discomfort. 1901 Greenville Daily News (SC) 20 Dec [3]/3, Today there still exists in some portions of my county the old, well built, well drained “cooter backed” highways, built either of shell or dirt. 1916 in 1993 Snowden–Bennett Two Friends 94 wNC, Cooter-backed: with a hump or ridge in the center; the crown of a well-made road being the cooter-back. . . To cooter-back : to crown a road so that it will drain on both sides, and not shed one way only as does the side-hill road—also, to cooter-back a stone wall with a ridged coping-stone. These are common usages of the mountains. 1926 Tampa Daily Times (FL) 18 June sec B 7/2, The photograph is the first group picture showing the new “cooter-back” helmets, new official head gear of the carriers. . . The Tampa and St. Petersburg mail men are said to be the only government employes who wear the tropical hats as part their authorized uniforms. 1937 Eve. Herald (Rock Hill SC) 13 Mar 2/4, The most beautiful collection of Catawba Indian relics . . is owned by E. Samuel L. Meacham of Fort Mill. . . He takes pleasure in showing visitors . . 24 “Cooter-Back” spear points, 22 plain spear points [etc]. 1950 PADS 14.22 SC, Cooter-backed. . . Highly arched, as the back of a cooter. Applied especially to dirt roads which are so constructed as to shed the rainfall and thus to prevent water from standing in the driveway and puddling the road.