cove

• enPR: kōv
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /koʊv/
  • (Received Pronunciation) 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-Germanic *kubô. Cognate with German Koben, Swedish kofva. This word has probably survived as long as it has due to its coincidental phonetic resemblence 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.]
   • Holland

     vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks

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.]

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

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.
   • H. Swinburne

     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. (Britain, dated, informal) A fellow; a man.
   • 2012, Pratchett, Terry, 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

• (man): covess, mort (specific antonyms)
• (man): See Thesaurus:woman (general antonyms)
• (friend): See Thesaurus:enemy

Compare French couver, Italian covare. See covey.

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

1. To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs.
   • Holland

     Not being able to cove or sit upon them [eggs], she [the female tortoise] bestoweth them in the gravel.

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

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.və/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.bə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.ve/

cove m (plural coves)

1. A large basket

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

cove f

1. plural of cova

• voce