| 释义 |
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2024cou•ple /ˈkʌpəl/USA pronunciation n., v., -pled, -pling. n. [countable] - a combination of two of a kind;
pair:Arrange the chairs in couples. - a grouping of two persons, such as a married pair, or dance partners:What a lovely couple they make.
- Mechanics a couple of, [~ + of + a plural noun] a few;
several;
more than one but not many:It's a couple of miles farther on.
v. - to fasten or associate together in a pair or pairs:[~ + object]The trainmen coupled the cars together.
- to join;
connect:[~ + object + with + object]The economic demands were coupled with cries for political freedom. - [no object] to have sex;
copulate.
Compare pair and couple, which both take a before and of after, and have the meaning "a group of two.'' pair is used when the two items mentioned next come as a set, with one not usually used without the other: a pair of socks, a pair of gloves, or when there is one item that has two parts, as in a pair of shorts, a pair of scissors. couple is used for things of the same kind that happen to be two in number: a couple of books, a couple of chairs. Only couple has the sense of "a few, several,'' as in a couple of miles away. couple therefore can mean "two (or more)''; pair will almost always mean "two (or less).'' WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2024cou•ple (kup′əl),USA pronunciation n., v., -pled, -pling. n. - two of the same sort considered together;
pair. - two persons considered as joined together, as a married or engaged pair, lovers, or dance partners:They make a handsome couple.
- any two persons considered together.
- Mechanicsa pair of equal, parallel forces acting in opposite directions and tending to produce rotation.
- BuildingAlso called couple-close. [Carpentry.]a pair of rafters connected by a tie beam or collar beam.
- a leash for holding two hounds together.
- [Fox Hunting.]two hounds:25 hounds or 121⁄2 couple.
- Idioms a couple of, more than two, but not many, of;
a small number of;
a few:It will take a couple of days for the package to get there.Also, a couple.
v.t. - to fasten, link, or associate together in a pair or pairs.
- to join;
connect. - to unite in marriage or in sexual union.
- Electricity
- to join or associate by means of a coupler.
- to bring (two electric circuits or circuit components) close enough to permit an exchange of electromagnetic energy.
v.i. - to join in a pair;
unite. - to copulate.
- Latin copulāre (see copulate)
- Anglo-French co(u)pler, Old French copler, cupler
- Latin cōpula a tie, bond (see copula); (verb, verbal) Middle English couplen
- Anglo-French c(o)uple, Old French cople, cuple
- (noun, nominal) Middle English 1175–1225
The phrase a couple of has been in standard use for centuries, especially with measurements of time and distance and in referring to amounts of money:They walked a couple of miles in silence.Repairs will probably cost a couple of hundred dollars.The phrase is used in all but the most formal speech and writing. The shortened phrase a couple, without of (The gas station is a couple miles from here), is an Americanism of recent development that occurs chiefly in informal speech or representations of speech. Without a following noun, the phrase is highly informal:Jack shouldn't drive.I think he's had a couple.(Here the noun drinks is omitted.)In referring to two people, couple, like many collective nouns, may take either a singular or a plural verb. Most commonly, it is construed as a plural:The couple were traveling to Texas.See also collective noun. |