couch
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: art
arts
beverages
brewing
business
crafts
food
government
hobbies
lifestyle
manufacturing
medicine
ophthalmology
papermaking
politics
sciences
sewing
textiles
Etymology: From Middle English couche, cowche, from Old French couche, from the verb (see below). Doublet of cwtch.
Inflected forms:
form: couches
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: cowch
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: couches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: couching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: couched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: couched
pos: verb
tags: past
form: cowch
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: cowch
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
Canada
Ireland
US
examples: At a casting workshop, an actor was performing a blank scene […] and he had not bothered to make any choices about why he was on stage, what his motivation was, what he was playing. He had decided who he was and where he was (on a couch with his girlfriend) but had not decided what he wanted. So the performance was flat and lifeless.
[…] I want to try to describe my efforts to take psychoanalysis as a method off the couch and into the work of creating and using a political conference table.
It's not a particularly unique living room. It has a window that faces the street, two broken-in beige couches, a few end tables, a television (not the latest model), and a dark blue throw rug in the center of it all. Alice sat down on one end of one couch, and I sat down on the other end.
gloss: A bed, a resting-place.
pos: noun
examples: O Sleepe, O gentle Sleepe, […] O thou dull God, why lyeſt thou with the vilde, / In loathſome Beds, and leau'st the Kingly Couch, / A Watch-caſe, or a common Larum-Bell?
[A]pproach thy grave / Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch / About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
[H]e and those / Shall bide eternal bedfellows / Where low upon the couch he lies / Whence he never shall arise.
The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.
The dining room that is typical of the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore differs considerably from the large public dining hall known from other sites such as Perachora or the Argive Heraion. It is small and encloses no more than nine couches, with seven or eight being most common. […] Throughout, we use the term "banquette" to indicate the continuous platform in contrast to "couch," which designates a portion of that banquette reserved for one diner. […] [I]ndividual couches are always marked off by contoured armrests, composed of a single row of fieldstones plastered with clay.
gloss: The den of an otter.
pos: noun
examples: A couch was located under the roots of an uprooted tree in a medium dense spruce patch and the second couch was located under a free standing spruce along a regulation channel.
gloss: A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.
pos: noun
examples: For the re-lining, the usual method is to strain a new and strong cloth of an even surface upon the stretcher, to rub it down smooth with pumice stone, and then to give it an even couch of paste, a similar couch is then to be applied to the back of the picture after it has been freed from all inequalities; […]
Once you have chosen which color of underpainting you will use, you should apply the paint to get the values, lighting, and the likeness perfect. The underpainting is applied using a couch of medium and the paint is worked into that medium in very small amounts and in small areas at a time. […] Your paint should glide and then melt into the couch as you work the paint with your brush.
gloss: A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.
pos: noun
examples: a couch of malt
MALTING IN MUNICH. The barley is steeped till the acrospire, in embryo, or seed germ, seems to be quickened; […] As long however as the seed-gum sticks to the husk, it has not been steeped enough for exposure to the underground malt-floor: nor can deficient steeping be safely made up for afterwards by sprinkling the malt couch with a watering can, which is apt to render the malting irregular. […] It [the barley] is now taken out and laid on the couch floor, in a square heap, eight to ten inches high, and it is turned over morning and evening with dexterity, so as to throw the middle portion upon the top and bottom of the new made couch.
gloss: Psychotherapy.
pos: noun
tags: metonymically
usually
examples: He spent years on the couch going over his traumatic childhood.
gloss: Voters who opt out of voting, usually by staying home on their couch.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
usually
examples: If Kamala Harris replaces Joe Biden in the 2024 election, analysts warn that she will lose to the couch.
gloss: To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Why did you ſo, doth not the Gentleman / Deſerue as full as fortunate a bed, / As euer Beatrice ſhall couch upon?
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.
Stay for me, / Where Soules do couch on Flowers, wee'l hand in hand, / And with our ſprightly Port make the Ghoſtes gaze: […].
All you do around here, Troy, is eat and couch and fondle the remote control.
gloss: To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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: […]
[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.
gloss: To lay something upon a bed or other resting place.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: But where vnbruſed youth with vnſtuft braine / Doth couch his lims, there, golden ſleepe doth raigne; […]
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.
gloss: To arrange or dispose as if in a bed.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: [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; […]
gloss: To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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; […]
gloss: To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: […] 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: […].
gloss: To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: To attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: These curtains we couched in white cord with quaint designs.
gloss: To phrase in a particular style; to use specific wording for.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He couched it as a request, but it was an order.
And here I should observe that I had received a letter from Flora couched in rather cool terms, congratulating me on my marriage; […]
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.
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.
gloss: To lie down for concealment; to conceal, to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly or secretly.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: Come, come: wee'll couch i'th Caſtle-ditch, till we ſee the light of our Fairies.
You have overlooked a fallacy couched in the experiment of the stick.
[…] 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?
Derived words: bed-couch
casting couch
couch bed
couchbound
couch dance
couch doctor
couchful
couch gag
couch-grass
couching stitch
couchless
couchlike
couch lock
couchlock
couchmaker
couchmaking
couchmate
couchness
couch potato
couchside
couch surf
couch-surf
couch surfer
couch-surfer
couch surfing
couch-surfing
fly couch
onion couch
on the couch
virtuous couch
water couch
Winnipeg couch
couchable
couch a hogshead
couch down
couchedness
coucher
couch up
recouch
uncouched
Translations: