Word.ws English Dictionary

cove

UK/kəʊv/US/koʊv/

cove noun: a hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern.

Noun (1)

cove (plural coves)

  1. (uncommon) A hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern.
  2. A concave vault or archway, especially the arch of a ceiling.
  3. A small coastal inlet, especially one having high cliffs protecting vessels from prevailing winds; bight.
    • secret coves and noukes1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC
    • There are several excellent snorkelling spots in the shallow coves around Chimei, and one-day tours (NT$1100 to NT$1300, including transport and food) can be arranged beforehand by your hotel or home-stay.2014, Robert Kelly, Chung Wah Chow, “Taiwan's Islands”, in Taiwan, 9th edition, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 307, column 2
  4. (US) A strip of prairie extending into woodland.
  5. (Cumbria) A recess or sheltered area on the slopes of a mountain.
  6. The wooden roof of the stern gallery of an old sailing warship.
  7. A thin line, sometimes gilded, along a yacht's strake below deck level.
  8. (Appalachia) A valley between two ridges, especially one that, opening to the south and east, is protected by ridges on the north and west from common winter storm tracks.
    • They were, despite their ignorance, unavoidably prosperous since their farm occupied a wide piece of cove bottom with dirt so black and rich it would raise sweet potatoes as long as your arm[.]1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 53

Verb (1)

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

  1. 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.1779, Henry Swinburne, Travels through Spain

Noun (2)

cove (plural coves)

  1. (UK, dated, thieves' cant, particularly Lewis) Man; fellow.
    • Don't call Major Pendennis an old cove, if you'll 'ave the goodness, Lightfoot, and don't call me an old cove, nether. Such words ain't used in society; and we have lived in the fust society, both at 'ome and foring.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC
    • He was lying back in an arm-chair with his mouth open and a sort of goofy expression in his eyes, while a grey-bearded cove in the middle distance watched him with so much dislike that I concluded that Bingo had pinched his favourite seat.1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Bingo and the Little Woman”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 203
  2. (Australia, Polari) Friend; mate.

Verb (2)

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

  1. (ambitransitive, obsolete) Of a bird or other animal: to brood, cover, incubate, or sit over (eggs).
    • Moreover, the provident care of the tortoiſe in the generation, nouriſhment and preſervation of [h]er yooung, is vvoonderfull: for out ſhe goeth of the ſea, and laieth her egges or caſteth her ſpavvne upon the banke ſide; but being not able to cove or ſit upon them, nor to remaine herſelfe upon the...1603, Plutarch, “Whether Creatures be more Wise, They of the Land, or Those of the Water”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold...
    Synonyms:
    covie

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Cove

Cove (countable and uncountable, plural Coves)

  1. An unincorporated community in Apache County, Arizona.
  2. A town in Polk County, Arkansas.
  3. An unincorporated community in McDonald County, Missouri.
  4. A minor city in Union County, Oregon.
  5. A minor city in Chambers County, Texas.
  6. A census-designated place in Cache County, Utah.
  7. A small village in Tiverton parish, Mid Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SS9519).
  8. A suburb of Farnborough, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU8556).
  9. A coastal village on the Rosneath peninsula, Argyll and Bute council area (OS grid ref NS2282).
  10. A hamlet on Loch Ewe, Highland council area (OS grid ref NG8090).
  11. A coastal village near Cockburnspath, Scottish Borders council area (OS grid ref NT7871).
  12. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Cove Bay, Aberdeen.
  13. A habitational surname from Old English.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Cove

the Cove

  1. (Australia) The official active supporters' group of Sydney FC (an Australian soccer club based in Sydney).

cove meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

cove in Hindi

कोव

cove in Marathi

कोव्ह, कोव

cove in Urdu

کووی کرنا

cove in Bengali

কোভ, কোভ করা
More languagesFewer languages
cove in Telugu
కోవ్, కోవ్ చెయ్యడానికి
cove in Malayalam
കോവ്, കോവ് ചെയ്യാൻ, കോവ് ചെയ്യുവാനായി
cove in Kannada
ಕೋವ್
cove in Punjabi
ਕੋਵ
cove in Odia
କୋଭ୍, କୋୱ୍, କୋଭ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
cove in Nepali
कोव, कोभ गर्न

Examples of cove in a sentence

  • Past the point, the shore retires into a sequence of coves.
  • The cove has hushed the battner; i.e. has killed the ox.
  • The boat was much safer, during the storm, in the sheltered cove.

All 37 example sentences with cove

Synonyms of cove

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

10 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of cove

Forms of cove

Noun
pluralcoves
Verb
third-person singular presentcoves
present participlecoving
past participlecoved
pastcoved
alternative formcouve
Proper noun
pluralCoves

Plural of cove: coves

Origin of cove

From Middle English cove, from Old English cofa (“chamber; den”), from Proto-West Germanic *kobō, from Proto-Germanic *kubô. Cognate with Dutch koof (“cove”), German Low German Koov (“small room”), German Koben (“nook, shed”), Icelandic kofi (“hut, shack”). This word has probably survived as long as it has due to its coincidental phonetic resemblance to the unrelated word English cave. Also unrelated to Spanish cueva, which itself is a cognate of cave.

Attested in Britain a. 1570, from Romani kodo (“this one, him”, pronounced /koðo/, ultimately undergoing th-fronting to /kov/ in English), or perhaps directly from Romani kova (“that person”).

Borrowed from French couver, from Old French cover (“to hatch (eggs)”), from Latin cubāre (“to lie down, recline; to incubate; to be broody”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- (“to lie down”). Cognates * Italian covare

Words formed from cove

Phrases with cove

57 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cove

41 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cove

What does cove mean?
Cove means a hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern.
What is cove in Hindi?
Cove in Hindi is कोव. See Cove meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is cove?
Cove can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cove?
Cove is pronounced /kəʊv/ (UK).
What is the plural of cove?
The plural of cove is coves.

Words near cove in the dictionary

  1. covarying
  2. Covasna
  3. Covault
  4. Covaults
  5. Covay
  6. cove
  7. Cove Bay
  8. cove molding
  9. cove moldings
  10. covector
  11. covectors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cove (page history and authors); Cove (page history and authors); cove (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cove (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 cove.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cove.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cove. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.