couch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kouch
ipa: /kaʊt͡ʃ/
ipa: /kuːt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -aʊtʃ
rhymes: -uːtʃ
Forms: form: couches
form: couching
form: couched
form: couched
form: cowch
form: cowch
Etymology: From Middle English couchen, from Old French (se) couchier, (se) colchier (“go to bed, lay down”), from Latin collocāre (“set in place”), from com- (“together, with”) + locāre. Doublet of collocate.
Senses: examples: text: Why did you ſo, doth not the Gentleman / Deſerue as full as fortunate a bed, / As euer Beatrice ſhall couch upon?
ref: 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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act III, scene i, page 110:
text: 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.
ref: 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: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act IV, scene iii, page 333:
text: Stay for me, / Where Soules do couch on Flowers, wee'l hand in hand, / And with our ſprightly Port make the Ghoſtes gaze: […].
ref: c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthony and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act IV, scene xiv, page 362:
text: All you do around here, Troy, is eat and couch and fondle the remote control.
ref: 1994, Reality Bites, spoken by Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder), Universal City, Calif.: MCA Universal Home Video, →OCLC:
synonyms: lie down
recline
glosses: To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose).
examples: text: 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: […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4:
text: [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.
ref: 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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act IV, scene ii, page 86:
glosses: To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.
examples: text: But where vnbruſed youth with vnſtuft braine / Doth couch his lims, there, golden ſleepe doth raigne; […]
ref: 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 by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene iii, page 61:
text: 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.
ref: 1974, Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Fearful Void, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:
glosses: To lay something upon a bed or other resting place.
examples: text: [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; […]
ref: 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 Consummation of All Things, volume I, London: Printed by R[oger] Norton for Walter Kettilby, OCLC 12330969, book I; republished as 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 Consummation of All Things. The Two First Books Concerning the Deluge, and Concerning Paradise, 3rd edition, volume I, London: Printed for R[oger] N[orton] for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1697, OCLC 228725686, page 56
glosses: To arrange or dispose as if in a bed.
examples: text: 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; […]
ref: 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 Authors Death, by VVilliam Rawley Doctor of Diuinitie, late His Lordships Chaplaine, London: Printed by I[ohn] H[aviland and Augustine Mathewes] for William Lee at the Turks Head in Fleet-street, next to the Miter, OCLC 606502643; republished as Sylva Sylvarvm: or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centvries. Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam Viscount St. Alban. Published after the Authors Death, by William Rawley Doctor in Divinitie, One of His Majesties Chaplaines. Hereunto is now Added an Alphabeticall Table of the Principall Things Contained in the Whole Worke, London: Printed by John Haviland for William Lee, and are to be sold by John Williams, 1635, OCLC 606502717, page 197
glosses: To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3:
text: 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.
ref: 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., […], →OCLC, stanza V:
glosses: To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack.
examples: text: […] 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 an ordinary Diſtance, without the Help of a very convex Lens; which is what every body has obſerved to be neceſſary to all thoſe who have had a Cataract couched: […].
ref: 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 Edinburgh, →OCLC, page 433:
topics: medicine
ophthalmology
sciences
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1922 May, “Paper board industry is distinctly American”, in Shears, volume 30, Lafayette, Ind.: Haywood Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 103:
text: 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.
ref: 2003, Josep Asunción, The Complete Book of Papermaking, New York, N.Y.: Lark Books, →ISBN, page 80:
topics: arts
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
papermaking
glosses: To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying.
examples: text: These curtains we couched in white cord with quaint designs.
ref: 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:
topics: business
manufacturing
sewing
textiles
glosses: To attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture.
examples: text: He couched it as a request, but it was an order.
text: And here I should observe that I had received a letter from Flora couched in rather cool terms, congratulating me on my marriage; […]
ref: 1878, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume CXXIII, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell and W. Davis, →OCLC, page 49:
text: More significantly, rigid deference to [Justin] Bieber’s still-young core fan base keeps things resolutely PG, with any acknowledgement of sex either couched in vague “touch your body” workarounds or downgraded to desirous hand-holding and eye-gazing.
ref: 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 29 Jun 2012:
text: When not inaccurate, much commentary on the contents of Hobson-Jobson is couched in hedges or relies on speculative estimates in the absence of exact information.
ref: 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487:
synonyms: explain
express
phrase
term
glosses: To phrase in a particular style; to use specific wording for.
examples: text: Come, come: wee'll couch i'th Caſtle-ditch, till we ſee the light of our Fairies.
ref: 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 Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act V, scene ii, page 58:
text: You have overlooked a fallacy couched in the experiment of the stick.
ref: 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, both Phylosophical and Physical, as well on the One Side as the Other, Impartially and Indefinitely Propounded, London: William Leybourn, →OCLC, dialogue 2:
text: […] Or who, regardless of the powers of calumny that keep their state as ministers of vengeance around the throne of ancient Prejudice, explores anew the half-hidden, half-revealed wonders, that yet couch beneath the words of the Scripture?
ref: 1832, Isaac Taylor, “The State of Sacred Science: ‘Thy Testimonies are My Meditation’”, in Saturday Evening, London: Holdsworth and Ball, OCLC 262702496; republished Hingham, Mass.: Published by C. & E. B. Gill …, 1833, OCLC 191249371, page 91
glosses: To lie down for concealment; to conceal, to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly or secretly.
Derived terms: couchable
couch a hogshead
couch down
couchedness
coucher
couch up
recouch
uncouched