couple
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkʌpəl/
rhymes: -ʌpəl
Forms: form: couples
form: copel
Etymology: From Middle English couple, from Old French couple, from Latin cōpula. Doublet of copula.
Senses: examples: text: A couple of police officers appeared at the door.
text: 'Tis in some sort with Friends (Pardon the Coarseness of the illustration) as it is with Dogs in Couples. They should be of the same Size; and Humour; and That which Pleases the One should Please the Other
ref: 1692, Roger L'Estrange, Fables, of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflexions, page 64:
text: […]couple of tables; one of which bore some preparations for supper; while, on the other […]
ref: 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:
glosses: Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
examples: text: The number of Souls in the Kingdom being uſually reckon'd one Million and a half, Of theſe I calculate there may be about tvvo hundred thouſand Couple vvhoſe VVives are Breeders, from vvhich Number I Subſtract thirty Thouſand Couples, vvho are able to maintain their ovvn Children, […]
ref: 1729, [Jonathan Swift], A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents, or the Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, Dublin: […] S[arah] Harding, […], →OCLC, page 5:
glosses: Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
examples: text: A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle […]
ref: 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:
text: ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’
ref: 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Red-Headed League:
text: When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore[…]
ref: 1902, A. Henry Savage Landor, Across Coveted Lands:
text: Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’[…].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.
ref: 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
coordinate_terms: handful
glosses: A small number.
glosses: One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A turning effect created by forces that produce a non-zero external torque.
topics: architecture
glosses: A couple-close.
examples: text: I’ll keep my stables where / I lodge my wife; I’ll go in couples with her;
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
text: As we passed the deserted mountain-dairy, we must have crossed the fresh track of a hare, because the hounds became rather uneasy in the couples.
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 27:
glosses: That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.
Synonyms: sense: two partners
word: twosome
sense: two things of the same kind
word: brace
word: pair
word: duo
sense: a small number of
word: few
sense: a small number of
word: handful
Derived terms: active couple
argue like a married couple
argue like an old married couple
bicker like a married couple
bicker like an old married couple
bridal couple
coupla
couple-beggar
couple-close
coupledom
couplehood
couple-ish
couple three
couple-three
couple up
coupley
couplezilla
couplish
couply
fight like a married couple
fight like an old married couple
galvanic couple
have a couple
in a couple of shakes
incouple
intercouple
married couple
medcouple
noncouple
odd couple
power couple
Romeo and Juliet couple
supercouple
thermocouple
throuple
voltaic couple