COVE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Cove

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/koʊv/ Listen

noun

Cove n.

A retired nook; especially, a small, sheltered inlet, creek, or bay; a recess in the shore. "Vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks."

A strip of prairie extending into woodland; also, a recess in the side of a mountain. (U.S.)

(Arch.)

(a)

A concave molding.

(b)

A member, whose section is a concave curve, used especially with regard to an inner roof or ceiling, as around a skylight.

Cove n. A boy or man of any age or station. (Slang) "There's a gentry cove here." "Now, look to it, coves, that all the beef and drink Be not filched from us."

verb

Cove v. t. (past & past part. coved; pres. part. coving) (Arch.) To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove. "The mosques and other buildings of the Arabians are rounded into domes and coved roofs."

Coved ceiling, a ceiling, the part of which next the wail is constructed in a cove.

Coved vault, a vault composed of four coves meeting in a central point, and therefore the reverse of a groined vault.

Cove v. t. To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs. (Obs.) "Not being able to cove or sit upon them (eggs), she (the female tortoise) bestoweth them in the gravel."

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Etymology of 'Cove'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cove" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the cove upon the shore of which Polktown was builded, a smart little steamboat flaunted a banner of smoke across the sky. The new Constance Colfax would soon be at the Polktown dock and Janice was on her way to meet it. That is, this was her obvious purpose, as it was of many Polktown ...

— The Mission of Janice Day • Helen Beecher Long

... all the countryside, but glory has departed, What if yachts and mansions be, by the river's marge! Dim though was a hillside, lamps were happy-hearted, Near the cove of Rondout in a hut or barge. Silken styles are tyrants, fashion kills the playtime, Robs the heart of largess that is kindly to the poor, Richer were the freemen, welcome as the Maytime, Glad was boy or maiden, seeing Brennan ...

— Ballads of Peace in War • Michael Earls

... and exhausting swim and poor Randy thought he would never reach the shore. The current carried him far down the river, to where there was a small cove, lined with rocks on one side and bushes and trees on the other. He caught at some of the bushes desperately and at last pulled himself to ...

— Randy of the River - The Adventures of a Young Deckhand • Horatio Alger Jr.

... five carriages, driven by the gentlemen of the party, held the picnic, which was destined for that beautiful cove on the Bay of Fundy where the red granite ledges, smooth-washed by ages of storm and sun, lend themselves to such festivities as if they had been artificially fashioned into shelves and tables. The whole place is yet so new to men that this haunt has not acquired that air of ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... immediately to work purchasing the provisions for his expedition and supervising their packing. The following day, on the advice of the general passenger agent of the Reid-Newfoundland Company, we took the evening train on their little narrow-gauge railroad to Whitbourne, en route to Broad Cove, where we were informed we should find excellent trout fishing and could pleasantly pass the time while awaiting ...

— The Lure of the Labrador Wild • Dillon Wallace

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