couch

Noun (1)

couch (plural couches)

1. (Australia, Canada, Ireland, US) An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa.
   • At a casting workshop, an actor was performing a blank scene […] and he had not bothered to make any choices about why he was on stage, what his motivation was, what he was playing. He had decided who he was and where he was (on a couch with his girlfriend) but had not decided what he wanted. So...2009, Nancy Bishop, Secrets from the Casting Couch: On Camera Strategies for Actors from a Casting Director, London: Methuen Drama, A & C Black, →ISBN
   • […] I want to try to describe my efforts to take psychoanalysis as a method off the couch and into the work of creating and using a political conference table.2010, Alessandra Lemma, Matthew Patrick, “Off the Couch and Round the Conference Table”, in Alessandra Lemma, Matthew Patrick, editors, Off the Couch: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Applications...

   Synonyms:

   davenport, divan, settee, sofa

2. A bed, a resting-place.
   • O Sleepe, O gentle Sleepe, […] O thou dull God, why lyeſt thou with the vilde, / In loathſome Beds, and leau'st the Kingly Couch, / A Watch-caſe, or a common Larum-Bell?1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Containing his Death: and the Coronation of King Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
   • [A]pproach thy grave / Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch / About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.c. 1811 or 1816, William Cullen Bryant, “The Fragment [later renamed Thanatopsis]”, in North American Review, Boston, Mass.: O. Everett, published September 1817, →OCLC
3. The den of an otter.
   • A couch was located under the roots of an uprooted tree in a medium dense spruce patch and the second couch was located under a free standing spruce along a regulation channel.1998, Kevin Roche, First Phase Report of the Třeboň Otter Project
4. (painting and gilding) A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.
   • For the re-lining, the usual method is to strain a new and strong cloth of an even surface upon the stretcher, to rub it down smooth with pumice stone, and then to give it an even couch of paste, a similar couch is then to be applied to the back of the picture after it has been freed from all...1839, Jean-François-Léonor Mérimée, W[illiam] B[enjamin] Sarsfield Taylor, “On the Preservation of Pictures, and the Methods Used for Restoring Them”, in The Art of Painting in Oil, and in Fresco...
   • Once you have chosen which color of underpainting you will use, you should apply the paint to get the values, lighting, and the likeness perfect. The underpainting is applied using a couch of medium and the paint is worked into that medium in very small amounts and in small areas at a time. […]...2008, Jodi Brody, Portrait Painting with Classical Old Masters Techniques: A Guide to Using the Venetian Methods, [Raleigh, N.C.]: Lulu, →ISBN, page 58
5. A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.
   • a couch of malt
   • MALTING IN MUNICH. The barley is steeped till the acrospire, in embryo, or seed germ, seems to be quickened; […] As long however as the seed-gum sticks to the husk, it has not been steeped enough for exposure to the underground malt-floor: nor can deficient steeping be safely made up for afterwards...1849, William Ford, “Malting”, in An Historical Account of the Malt Trade and Laws, Shewing the Decline, and Causes of the Decline in the Consumption of Malt; with a Practical Treatise on Malting and...
6. (metonymically, usually) Psychotherapy.
   • He spent years on the couch going over his traumatic childhood.
7. (figuratively, usually) Voters who opt out of voting, usually by staying home on their couch.
   • If Kamala Harris replaces Joe Biden in the 2024 election, analysts warn that she will lose to the couch.

Verb

couch (third-person singular simple present couches, present participle couching, simple past and past participle couched)

1. (intransitive) To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose).
   • Why did you ſo, doth not the Gentleman / Deſerue as full as fortunate a bed, / As euer Beatrice ſhall couch upon?1598–1599, William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac...
   • I call'd my Loue falſe Loue: but what ſaid he then? / Sing Willough, &c. / If I court mo women, you'le couch with mo men.c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London...

   Synonyms:

   lie down, recline

2. (intransitive) To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.
   • At laſt, as thro an open Plain they yode, / They ſpy'd a Knight, that towards pricked fair, / And him beſide an aged Squire there rode, / That ſeem'd to couch under his Shield three-ſquare, / As if that Age bad him that Burden ſpare, / And yield it thoſe that ſtouter could it wield: […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4
   • [T]hen let the Trumpets ſound / The Tucket Sonuance, and the Note to mount: / For our approach ſhall ſo much dare the field, / That England ſhall couch downe in feare, and yeeld.c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac...
3. (transitive) To lay something upon a bed or other resting place.
   • But where vnbruſed youth with vnſtuft braine / Doth couch his lims, there, golden ſleepe doth raigne; […]c. 1591–1595?, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed...
   • The storm seemed to have acquired a second wind, blowing as fiercely as in the morning, and at the tree we couched the beasts and started to upload again. We rolled into our blankets once more, and passed more hours sheltering blindly from the blasting of the sand.1974, Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Fearful Void, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN
4. (transitive) To arrange or dispose as if in a bed.
   • [T]he Sea and the Land make one Globe, and the waters couch themſelves, as cloſe as may be, to the Center of this Globe in a Spherical convexity; ſo that if all the Mountains and Hills were ſcal'd, and the Earth made even, the Waters would not overflow its ſmooth ſurface; […]1684, Thomas Burnet, The Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of All the General Changes which it Hath Already Undergone, or Is to Undergo, Till the...
5. (transitive) To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.
   • It is, at this Day, in uſe, in Gaza, to couch Pot-Sheards or Veſſels of Earth, in their Walls, to gather the Wind from the top, and to paſſe it downe in Spouts into Roomes. It is a Device for Freſhneſſe, in great Heats; […]1627, Francis Bacon, “VIII. Century”, in Sylua Syluarum: or A Naturall Historie: in Ten Centuries. VVritten by the Right Honourable Francis Lo[rd] Verulam Viscount St. Alban. Published after the...
6. (transitive) To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack.
   • And fairly couching his ſteel-headed Spear, / Him firſt ſaluted with a ſturdy Stroke: / It booted nought Sir Guyon, coming near, / To think ſuch hideous Puiſſance on foot to bear.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3
   • Stout Deloraine nor sighed, nor prayed, / Nor saint, nor ladye, called to aid: / But he stooped his head, and couched his spear, / And spurred his steed to full career. / The meeting of these champions proud / Seemed like the bursting thunder-cloud.1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co....
7. (transitive) In the treatment of a cataract in the eye, to displace the opaque lens with a sharp object such as a needle. The technique is regarded as largely obsolete.
   • […] A Man having a Cataract in both Eyes, which intirely deprived him of Sight, committed himſelf to an Oculiſt, who finding them ripe, performed the Operation, and couched the Cataracts with all the Succeſs could be deſired; but after they were couched, he could not ſee objects diſtinctly, even at...1759, William Porterfield, A Treatise on the Eye, the Manner and Phænomena of Vision. In Two Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed for A. Miller at London, and for G. Hamilton and J. Balfour at...
8. (transitive) To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying.
   • He invented the grooved wood roll or mandrel on which the thin film of wet paper, as couched from the cylinder mould, was wound and thus the sheet built up to the required thickness, when it was cut from the roll or mandrel along the groove and peeled off to be air dried and sheet calendered.1922 May, “Paper board industry is distinctly American”, in Shears, volume 30, Lafayette, Ind.: Haywood Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 103
   • Couching involves transferring the sheet of paper from the mould to the felt. […] After couching the sheet, place a new felt on top and repeat the operation.2003, Josep Asunción, The Complete Book of Papermaking, New York, N.Y.: Lark Books, →ISBN, page 80
9. (transitive) To attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture.
   • These curtains we couched in white cord with quaint designs.1890, “A combination dining and sitting room”, in The Home-maker: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 3, New York, N.Y.: Home-maker Co., →OCLC, page 326
10. (transitive) To phrase in a particular style; to use specific wording for.
    • He couched it as a request, but it was an order.
    • And here I should observe that I had received a letter from Flora couched in rather cool terms, congratulating me on my marriage; […]1878, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume CXXIII, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell and W. Davis, →OCLC, page 49

    Synonyms:

    explain, express, phrase, term, frame

11. (archaic, intransitive) To lie down for concealment; to conceal, to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly or secretly.
    • Come, come: wee'll couch i'th Caſtle-ditch, till we ſee the light of our Fairies.before 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by...
    • You have overlooked a fallacy couched in the experiment of the stick.1661, Galileo Galilei, translated by Thomas Salusbury, The Systeme of the World: In Four Dialogues wherein the Two Grand Systemes of Ptolomy and Copernicus are Largely Discoursed of: And the Reasons...

Noun (2)

couch (uncountable)

1. Couch grass, a species of persistent grass, Elymus repens, usually considered a weed.
   • The first field it did was one on which Swedes had been roughly planted the year previously, but it had not been touched since the crop was eaten off, and was then a perfect wilderness of Couch, Docks, Thistles, and Dandelions.1864 November 19, “The Agricultural Gazette”, in The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette: A Newspaper of Rural Economy and General News, volume 24, number 47, London: Published for the...
   • After he knew that he would have to give up the farm in two years he ploughed it up, had a thin crop of oats, and sowed it again with winter oats. In February, 1914, it was a field of couch.1916, The Law Journal Reports, volume 85, part 1, London: E. B. Ince, →OCLC, page 46

Proper noun capitalized: Couch

IPA/kuːt͡ʃ/

Couch

1. A surname.
2. An unincorporated community in Mason County, West Virginia, United States.