hover
Syllables: hov·erUK/ˈhɒvə//ˈhʌvɚ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
hover verb: to keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.
Verb
hover (third-person singular simple present hovers, present participle hovering, simple past and past participle hovered)
- To keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.
- Of a bird: to shelter (chicks) under its body and wings; (by extension) of a thing: to cover or surround (something).
- Castration has a ſtrange effect: it emaſculates both man, beaſt, and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex. […] Capons have ſmall combs and gills, and look pallid about the head, like pullets; they alſo vvalk vvithout any parade, and hover chickens like hens.1789, Gil[bert] White, “Letter XXXII. To the Same.”, in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton: […], London: […] T[homas] Bensley; for B[enjamin] White and Son...
- Of a bird or insect: to flap (its wings) so it can remain stationary in the air.
- O'er the deer Corps ſomtimes her vvings ſhe [an eagle] hovers, / Somtimes the dead breſt vvith her breſt ſhe covers, […]1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His First Week, or Birth of the World: […].] The Fift Daie of the First Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and...
- Thus have I lain conceal'd like a vvinter Fly, hoping for ſome bleſt Sun-Shine to vvarm me into Life again, and make me hover my flagging VVings; […]1686 (first performance), A[phra] Behn, The Luckey Chance, or An Alderman’s Bargain. A Comedy. […], London: […] R. H[olt], for W. Canning, […], published 1687, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 5
- To remain stationary or float in the air.
- The hummingbird hovered by the plant.
- [T]hough you go to Theaters to see sport, Cupid may cache you ere you departe. The little god hovereth aboute you, and fanneth you with his wings to kindle fire: when you are set as fixed whites, Desire draweth his arrow to the head, and sticketh it uppe to the fethers, and Fancy bestireth him to...1579, Stephen Gosson, “The Schoole of Abuse, […]”, in The School of Abuse, Containing a Pleasant Invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Jesters, &c. […], London: […] [Frederic Shoberl, Jun.] for...
- Sometimes followed by over: to hang around or linger in a place, especially in an uncertain manner.
- His pen hovered above the paper.
- The strange man hovered outside the gents’ toilet.
- Synonyms:
- wasp around
- To be indecisive or uncertain; to vacillate, to waver.
- Filling in the voting form, I hovered between Labour and Liberal Democrat.
- And the reason why the land-lord will no longer covenant with him [the husbandman], is, for that he dayly looketh after change and alteration, and hovereth in expectation of new worlds.1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […]...
- Chiefly followed by over: to use a mouse or other device to place a cursor over something on a screen such as a hyperlink or icon without clicking, so as to produce a result (such as the appearance of a tooltip).
- A tooltip appears when you hover over this link.
- To travel in a hovercraft as it moves above a water surface.
Noun
hover (plural hovers)
- An act, or the state, of remaining stationary in the air or some other place.
- A flock of birds fluttering in the air in one place.
- An act, or the state, of being suspended; a suspension.
- A cover; a protection; a shelter; specifically, an overhanging bank or stone under which fish can shelter; also, a shelter for hens brooding their eggs.
- Oyſters grevv vpon boughs of trees (an Indian miracle) vvhich vvere caſt in [the pond] thither, to ſerue as a houer for the fiſh.1609, Richard Carew, “The Second Booke”, in The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC, folio 105, verso
- And now, down the rushing stream, […] past dark hovers under swirling banks, from which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking him to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the fairies sent them home again with a tremendous scolding, for daring to meddle with a water-baby; […]1862 August – 1863 March, Charles Kingsley, chapter III, in The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., published 1863, →OCLC, page 116
Proper noun capitalized: Hover
Hover
- A surname.
hover meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
hover in Tamil
- வட்டமிடுதல்
hover in Urdu
- ڈیرا ڈالنا, لٹکے رہنا
hover in Bengali
- উপরে ভেসে থাকা, ঘোরাঘুরি করা, অনিশ্চিত অবস্থায় থাকা
hover in Malayalam
- മേലേ വട്ടമിട്ട് പറക്കുക, അലഞ്ഞുതിരിയുക, ചുറ്റിപ്പറ്റി നടക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- hover in Kannada
- ಹಾರಾಡುತ್ತಿರು, ಸುಳಿದಾಡು, ಠಳಾಯಿಸು, ಅಡ್ಡಾಡು
- hover in Arabic
- حَامَ ḥāma
- hover in Indonesian
- layang
- hover in Thai
- ร่อน rɔ̂n
- hover in Vietnamese
- lượn, luẩn quẩn, chờn vờn, rê chuột
Examples of hover in a sentence
- The visitors were hovering at the door, seemingly unwilling to enter.
- Some helicopter parents weren’t so much dropping off their kids as hovering over them until the event started.
- Thou hoveredst, like a guardian angel—healing in thy wings, and glad-tidings all around thee—over the poor lost-one.1857, William Platt, “‘His Will Be Done!’”, in Mothers and Sons. A Story of Real Life. […], volume I, London: Charles J. Skeet, […], →OCLC...
- Here are there were smaller craft—wherries, steam-launches, tenders, and what not; and they seemed like so many flies hovering on the surface of the water when they came near that majestic ship.1877, William Black, “The Isobars”, in Green Pastures and Piccadilly. […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 150:
- […] I found we were lying in a roadstead among many low and rocky islets, hovered about by an innumerable cloud of sea-fowl.1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, “Story of the Fair Cuban”, in More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, London...
- Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...
Synonyms of hover
Forms of hover
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | hovers |
| present participle | hovering |
| past participle | hovered |
| past | hovered |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | hoverest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | hoveredst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | hovereth |
| Noun | |
| plural | hovers |
Origin of hover
The verb is derived from Middle English hoveren (“to float in the air, hover; to stay”), probably from hoven (“hover; of a bird: to fly high in the air, soar”) (which it displaced) + -er- (frequentative suffix). Hoven is probably derived from Old English *hōfian, from hōfon, the plural past indicative form of hebban (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift; to heave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to hold, seize”). The English word is analysable as hove (“(obsolete) to remain suspended, float, hover; to linger, wait”) + -er (frequentative suffix). The noun is derived from the verb.
Words formed from hover
- hoverable
- hoverbarge
- hoverbike
- hoverboard
- hoverboat
- hovercam
- hovercar
- hoverchair
- hovercraft
- hovercycle
- hovered
- hoverer
- hover-height
- hovering
- hoveringly
- hoverjet
- hoverpack
- hoverport
- hoverslam
- hovertrain
- overhovering
- windhover
- hovercard
- hoverfly
- hover fly
- hover hand
- hover text
Phrases with hover
Words that rhyme with hover
Questions about hover
- What does hover mean?
- Hover means to keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.
- What is hover in Tamil?
- Hover in Tamil is வட்டமிடுதல். See Hover meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use hover in a sentence?
- The visitors were hovering at the door, seemingly unwilling to enter.
- What part of speech is hover?
- Hover can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce hover?
- Hover is pronounced /ˈhɒvə/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of hover?
- The past tense of hover is hovered.
Words near hover in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hover (page history and authors); Hover (page history and authors); hover (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hover (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Hover (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hover (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hover (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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-us-hover.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Simplificationalizer-hover.wav.
Cite this entry: “hover.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hover. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.