A retired nook; especially, a small, sheltered inlet, creek, or bay; a recess in the shore. Vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks. Holland.
A strip of prairie extending into woodland; also, a recess in the side of a mountain. [U.S.]
A concave molding.
A member, whose section is a concave curve, used especially with regard to an inner roof or ceiling, as around a skylight.
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. H. Swinburne. Coved ceiling, a ceiling, the part of which next the wail is constructed in a cove. -- Coved vault, a vault composed of four coves meeting in a central point, and therefore the reverse of a groined vault.
To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs. [Obs.] Not being able to cove or sit upon them [eggs], she [the female tortoise] bestoweth them in the gravel. Holland.
A boy or man of any age or station. [Slang] There's a gentry cove here. Wit's Recreations (1654). Now, look to it, coves, that all the beef and drink Be not filched from us. Mrs. Browning.
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