cove

• (General American) enPR: kōv IPA^(key): /koʊv/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kōv IPA^(key): /kəʊv/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊv
• Homophone: Cobh

Coved vault ceiling, Alhambra (Spain)

Cadgwith cove, Cornwall (United Kingdom)

From Middle English cove, from Old English cofa (“chamber; den”), from Proto-West Germanic *kobō, from Proto-Germanic *kubô. Cognate with German Koben, Swedish kova. This word has probably survived as long as it has due to its coincidental phonetic resemblance to the unrelated word "cave".

cove (plural coves)

1. (now uncommon) A hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern. [from 9th c.]
2. (architecture) A concave vault or archway, especially the arch of a ceiling. [from 16th c.]
3. A small coastal inlet, especially one having high cliffs protecting vessels from prevailing winds. [from 16th c.]
   • 1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC:

     secret coves and noukes

4. (US) A strip of prairie extending into woodland.
5. A recess or sheltered area on the slopes of a mountain. [from 19th c.]
6. (nautical) The wooden roof of the stern gallery of an old sailing warship. [from 19th c.]
7. (nautical) A thin line, sometimes gilded, along a yacht's strake below deck level. [from 19th c.]
8. (Appalachia) A valley between two ridges.
   • 1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 53:

     They were, despite their ignorance, unavoidably prosperous since their farm occupied a wide piece of cove bottom with dirt so black and rich it would raise sweet potatoes as long as your arm[.]

• cove molding
• Glen Cove
• Green Cove Springs
• shallow cove

cove (third-person singular simple present coves, present participle coving, simple past and past participle coved)

1. (architecture) To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove.
   • 1779, Henry Swinburne, Travels through Spain:

     The mosques and other buildings of the Arabians are rounded into domes and coved roofs.

Britain ante-1570. From Romani kodo (“this one, him”), perhaps change in consonants due to lower class th-fronting, or Romani kova (“that person”).

cove (plural coves)

1. (British, dated, informal, thieves' cant, Lewis) A fellow; a man.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Don’t call Major Pendennis an old cove, if you’ll ’ave the goodness, Lightfoot, and don’t call me an old cove, nether. Such words ain’t used in society; and we have lived in the fust society, both at ’ome and foring.

   • 2012, Terry Pratchett, Dodger, →ISBN, page 326:

     At one point, a friendly-looking sort of cove with silver hair and a grandfatherly kind of face beamed at him […]

2. (Australia and Polari) A friend; a mate.

• (man): See Thesaurus:man
• (friend): See Thesaurus:friend

• (antonym(s) of “man”): covess, mort, blone (specific antonyms)
• (antonym(s) of “man”): See Thesaurus:woman (general antonyms)
• (antonym(s) of “friend”): See Thesaurus:enemy

Borrowed from French couver and Old French cover (“to hatch (eggs)”), from Latin cubāre,[1] the present active infinitive of cubō (“to lie down, recline; to incubate; to be broody”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- (“to lie down”).

cove (third-person singular simple present coves, present participle coving, simple past and past participle coved)

1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) Of a bird or other animal: to brood, cover, incubate, or sit over (eggs).

   Synonym: covie

   • 1603, Plutarch, “Whether Creatures be more Wise, They of the Land, or Those of the Water”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 976:

     Moreover, the provident care of the tortoiſe in the generation, nouriſhment and preſervation of [h]er yooung, is vvoonderfull: for out ſhe goeth of the ſea, and laieth her egges or caſteth her ſpavvne upon the banke ſide; but being not able to cove or ſit upon them, nor to remaine herſelfe upon the land out of the ſea any long time, ſhe beſtovveth them in the gravell, and aftervvards covereth them vvith the lighteſt and fineſt ſand ſhe can get: […]

• couve (obsolete)

• Voce

• covo (Northern, Mallorca, Menorca)

Inherited from Latin cophinus, from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “basket”).

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈkɔ.βə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈkɔ.və]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈkɔ.ve]

cove m (plural coves)

1. a large basket

• IPA^(key): /ˈko.ve/
• Rhymes: -ove
• Hyphenation: có‧ve

cove f

1. plural of cova

• voce