covey

From Old French covee (Modern French couvée), from Latin cubō (“lie”).

• enPR: kŭvʹē, IPA^(key): /ˈkʌvi/

  • Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ʌvi

covey (plural covies or coveys)

1. A group of 8–12 (or more) quail.
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 55:

     “Like when you quail huntinʼ and itʼs getting dark and you can hear the boss bird whistlinʼ tryinʼ to get the covey together again.”

   Coordinate terms: flock, gaggle, host

2. A brood of partridges, grouse, etc.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the VVorld. Commonly Called, The Natvrall Historie of C. Plinivs Secvndus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, OCLC 1180792622:

     laid for by the fowler, together with their covey of young birds

3. A party or group (of persons or things).
   • 1906, O. Henry, The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein:

     The store is on a corner about which coveys of ragged-plumed, hilarious children play and become candidates for the cough drops and soothing syrups that wait for them inside.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 736

     A covey of grey soldiers clanked down the platform at the double with their equipment and embarked, but in absolute silence, which seemed to them very singular.

covey (third-person singular simple present coveys, present participle coveying, simple past and past participle coveyed)

1. (intransitive) To brood; to incubate.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the VVorld. Commonly Called, The Natvrall Historie of C. Plinivs Secvndus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, OCLC 1180792622:

     Book 9

     [Tortoises] couvie a whole yeere before they hatch

   • 1869, Florida. Commissioner of Lands and Immigration, Florida: Its Climate, Soil, and Productions, page 108:

     There is a duck called the raft duck, because it is so numerous, coveying together in "whole rafts."

• 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, Oxford University Press, →ISBN

cove +‎ -y

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊvi/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) enPR: kōʹvē, IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊvi/
• Rhymes: -əʊvi

covey (plural coveys)

1. (Britain, slang, dated) A man.
   • 1846, Justin Jones, The prince and the queen; or, Scenes in high life:

     'Pooh!' said he, 'you are as easily wounded as an unfledged dove — don't mind what an old covey like me says — I understand it all.'

   • 1850, Waldo Howard, The mistake of a life-time, or, The robber of the Rhine, page 140:

     There vas an old covey as lived in Wapping, at the time I'm telling you of, who vas connected vith us by ties of common interest.

   • 1851, William Thomas Moncrieff, Selections from the dramatic works of William T. Moncrieff:

     I don't know what would become of these here young chaps, if it wasn't for such careful old coveys as we are—

• bloke (UK), chap (UK), chappie (UK), cove (UK), guy, see also Thesaurus:man

• voyce