| 释义 |
▪ I. cove, n.1|kəʊv|
Forms: 1–2 cofa, coua, 4– cove, (Sc. 4 cowe, 5 coaue, 6 coif).
[Common Teut.; cf. MHG. kobe (mod.G. koben), MLG. cove, coven, mod. koven; ON. kofi cell, hut, shed, Sw. kofva, dial. kove, kuvi, hut, Norw. kove:—OTeut. *kuƀon. Some of the special applications in Eng. seem to be local developments, and are of late appearance in literature.]
†1.
a. In OE.: A small chamber, inner chamber, bed-chamber, cell, etc.; common with qualifying word prefixed, as bán-cofa bone-chamber, body, gást-cofa spirit's chamber, breast.
a800Corpus Gloss. 1583 Pistrimum [-num], cofa. 956Charter Eadwig in Cod. Dipl. V. 348 Of mædæna coua on ðone hricweᵹ tô Ealhæres byrᵹelse. a1000Cædmon's Gen. 1464 (Gr.) Wæs culufre eft of cofan sended. c1000Ags. Ps. civ. 26 [cv. 30] On cyninga cofum [in cubilibus regum]. c1000Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 189/10 Penates, cofgodas. c1050Gloss. ibid. 423/18 In conclaui, on cofan.
†b. cove and key: closet or chamber and key; an ancient legal phrase used by Bracton in reference to the functions and rights of the mistress of a house, from the age of fourteen or fifteen. Obs.
In the 1569 ed. of Bracton, erroneously printed cone and key; repeated in Spelman and the Law Dicts., as well as in the Rolls ed. of Bracton. The MSS. have clearly coue; MS. Rawlinson C. 158 has cleue and key (see cleve2 chamber, bed-room, closet = cove); MS. Rawl. C. 159 has cofre, app. altered from cofe. See W. H. Stevenson in Academy, 17 May 1890, 338. (It is not perfectly clear whether cove, cleve closet here meant ‘bed-chamber’ or ‘store-chamber’.)
c1250Bracton ii. xxxvii. §2 Femina..cum possit et sciat domui suæ disponere et ea facere quæ pertinent ad dispositionem et ordinationem domus, ut sciat quæ pertineant ad coue et keye, quod quidem esse non poterit ante quartum decimum annum vel decimum quintum. Ibid. §3 Cum esset quatuordecim vel quindecim annorum..in tali ætate potest disponere domui suæ et habere coue et keye. 1651W. G. tr Cowel's Inst. 33 A Woman is supposed to be of perfect age in Socage in all cases so soon as she is able to know how to dispose of her house..and is able to understand what appertains to Cone and Key, which cannot be before she be fourteen or fifteen years old. 1890W. H. Stevenson in Academy 17 May 338 ‘Cove and key’ meant ‘closet and key’, referring, no doubt, to the housewife's storechamber.
†c. A cell in a pigeon-cote. Obs.
1725Bradley Family Dict. s.v. Pigeon House, As to the Nests or Coves of the Pigeon-house, some build them in the Wall with flat Bricks.
2. A hollow or recess in a rock, a cave, cavern, den. Sc. and north.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xxi. 13 Hus min hus ᵹebedes ᵹeceiᵹed ᵹie uutedlice ᵹie worhton ða ilca cofa ðeafana [Ags. Gosp. to þeofa cote; Vulg. speluncam latronum]. ― John xi. 38 Se Hælend..cuom to ðæm byrᵹenne, uæs uutudlice cofà [Vulg. spelunca] {oeamp} stan ofer-ᵹessetted uæs him. a1300Cursor M. 12341 (Cott.) To þe leones coue he yod. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, Magdalena 814 & in þat roche hey & stay A cowe he had quhare he lay. c1450Henryson Mor. Fab. 56 All wylde beastes..Drawes..vnto their dennes deepe, Couching for cold in coaues them to keepe. 1513Douglas æneis i. iv. 21 Vndir the hingand rokkis was alswa Ane coif, and thairin fresch wattir springand. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. 47 A certane coue [Lat. antrum], quhairin water continualie drapping, in a schorte space turnes in a verie quhyte stane. 1787Burns Halloween i. Note, A noted cavern near Colean-house, called the Cove of Colean. 1849Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 358 The dark caverns, or ‘coves’..tenanted by these animals.
3. a. A recess with precipitous sides in the steep flank of a mountain. (Common in the English Lake district, where small lateral valleys often end in ‘coves’.) b. In some parts of U.S. = gap, pass.
1805Wordsw. Fidelity iii, It was a cove, a huge recess That keeps till June, December's snow. 1872Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lakes (1879) 337 The dark, solitary hollows of Nethermost, Ruthwaite, and Cock coves. Ibid. 342 A wild, secluded cove, at the head of the glen. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 511 Notch, a narrow passage, through the mountains..in the Catskill mountains represented by Cove.
4. A sheltered recess in a coast; a small bay, creek, or inlet where boats may shelter.
1590Ferris Voy. Bristol in Arb. Garner VI. 161 Within five miles of St. Ives, we were constrained to seek for a cove; which we found called St. Dryvey, in Cornwall. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia i. 20 Gallant Coues, to containe in many of them 100 sayle. 1674Ray S. & E.C. Words 62 Cove, a little harbour for boats. West Countrey. 1720De Foe Capt. Singleton iv. 58 We run our vessel into a little cove. 1776C. Lee in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) I. 244 The creek, or cove, which separates it from the continent, is near a mile wide. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 37 There are several coves and indentures in the cliffs between the Start Point and the mouth of the Dart river. 1833Tennyson Poems 30 As waves that from the outer deep Roll into a quiet cove.
5. transf. A sheltered place or recess among hills, woods, etc.
1786W. Gilpin Mts. & Lakes I. 133 Ambleside is..delightfully seated. A cove of lofty mountains half incircles it on the north. 1787Wordsw. Evening Walk 2 'Tis mine to rove Through bare grey dell, high wood, and pastoral cove. 1860Bartlett Dict. Amer., Cove, a strip of prairie extending into the woodland. 1863M. Howitt F. Bremer's Greece II. xii. 35 Small farm-houses..may not unfrequently be met with in the little coves of the valleys.
6. a. Arch. A concave arch or vault; an arched moulding or concavity running along the projecting member of a structure; esp. the concave arch of a ceiling; now usually the quadrantal curve at its junction with the cornice.
1511MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd for makyng off a cove ouer de ovyn. 1645Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 219 The fillings up, or cove, betwixt the walls, were of urns and earthen pots, for the better sounding. 1787Burns Brigs of Ayr 133 O'er arching, mouldy, gloom-inspiring coves, Supporting roofs fantastic. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §278 note, This course..forms the cove on the outside. 1797Trans. Soc. Encouragem. Arts XV. 252 Paintings..on curved surfaces, such as the coves of ceilings. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 139 The coves and cornices of rooms are generally executed in plaster. 1884Law Times 18 Oct. 401/2 The ceiling..is..joined to the walls with a cove having a radius of six feet.
b. Naut. (See quot.)
c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 112 Cove, the arched moulding sunk in at the foot or lower part of the taffrail.
c. Archæol. A setting of a small number of stones close together within a henge monument.
1743Stukeley Abury viii. 37 Thus we cast up the number [of stones]. The outer circle of Abury town, 100... The cove, 003... Longstone cove jambs, 002. Ibid. x. 47 Another stonework towards the other end; which seems to have been a semicircular cove, or demi-ellipsis consisting of five great stones. 1819Sir R. C. Hoare Anc. Hist. N. Wilts 68 A cove, consisting of three large stones placed with an obtuse angle towards each other. 1936Proc. Prehist. Soc. II. 25 At Avebury and at Arbor Low there are remains of more complex structures, sometimes known as coves. 1963Field Archaeol. (Ordnance Survey) (ed. 4) 40 Both at Stanton Drew and at Avebury there is a curious arrangement of stones known as a ‘cove’ which recalls, though on a larger scale, the burial place in a chambered barrow.
7. Comb. cove-bracketing (see quot.); cove-plane, a plane for cutting coved surfaces.
1873J. Richards Wood-working Factories 146 In some shops it will be worked out by hand with cove planes. 1876Gwilt Archit. Gloss, Cove Bracketing, the wooden skeleton for the lathing of any cove..usually applied to that of the quadrantal cove, which is placed between the flat ceiling and the wall.
▪ II. cove, n.2 slang (orig. Thieves' cant).|kəʊv|
Forms: 6–7 cofe, 6 coff, 7– cove.
[The early variant cofe has suggested that this is identical with Sc. cofe n., ‘chapman, pedlar’, the sense having undergone the same transition as in chap, which is now nearly equivalent in meaning, save that cove belongs to a lower and more slangy stratum of speech. But the phonetic change of f to v, at so late a date, is not usual; and the origin of the word still remains obscure. Cf. also co n.2]
A fellow, ‘chap’, ‘customer’; sometimes = boss n.6 (see quots. 1812, 1891).
Frequent in the 20th century in Austral. sources.
1567Harman Caveat 84 A gentry cofe, a noble or gentleman. Ibid. 86 What, stowe you, bene cofe..What, holde your peace, good fellowe. 1609Dekker Lanth. & Candle Lt. Wks. 1884–5 III. 196 The word Coue, or Cofe, or Cuffin, signifies a Man, a Fellow, &c...a good fellow is a Bene Cofe. 1621B. Jonson Gipsies Metamorph. Wks. (Rtldg.) 619/2 There's a gentry cove here, Is the top of the shire. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Cofe, c. as Cove. 1737in Logan Pedlar's Pack (1869) 147 Now my Kinchin Cove is gone. 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., The master of a house or shop is called the Cove..; when joined to particular words, as a cross-cove, a flash-cove, a leary-cove, &c., it simply implies a man of those several descriptions. 1838Dickens O. Twist x, That old cove at the book-stall. 1891N. Gould Doub. Event 115, I am not in the habit of being called a cove. 1891Lentzner Australian Word-bk., Cove, master or overseer of an Australian station. 1911C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxxiii. 288 Recollec' that cove with a red beard. 1916Anzac Book 65 Then a corporal called and wanted to know..when would the rubber boots be ready for the coves in the trenches? 1916J. B. Cooper Coo-oo-ee vii. 84 ‘He's one of those smart coves,’ said Sam. 1944F. Clune Red Heart 67 ‘Must be a balmy cove,’ whispered one of the hangers-on as he tapped his forehead. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 190 The young coves round about combed their hair back with soap to keep it in position. 1969Advertiser (Adelaide) 12 May 5/4 You Aussie coves are just a bunch of drongoes.
▪ III. cove, v.|kəʊv|
[f. cove n.1]
†1. intr. To shelter in a cove or small bay. Obs.
1631E. Pellham God's Power & Prov. in Collect. Voy. (Church. 1704) IV. 811 Even there between two Rocks we coved. Ibid. 814 We could not possibly get to Bell Sound that night, but Coved halfway. 1708E. Cook Sot-weed Factor 2 Weighing soon, we plough'd the Bay, To Cove it in Piscato-way.
2. a. trans. To arch or vault; esp. to arch (a ceiling) at its junction with the wall.
1756,1779[see coved]. 1817Scott Let. to Terry 29 Oct., in Lockhart, I resign the idea of coving the library to your better judgement. 1864Kerr Gentl. House 207 Another good principle is to cove the ceilings.
b. To incline inwards (the sides of a fireplace): see coving 2.
1838Papers Duties Corps R. Eng. II. 253 Fire-places..should all have their sides altered by coving them.
▪ IV. cove
var. of cofe adv. Obs., quickly.
a1325Names of Hare in Rel. Ant. I. 134 The liȝtt-fot..The go-bi-grounde..The coue-arise.
▪ V. cove
var. of couve v.; obs. f. covey. |