cove

¹ American  

[kohv] / koʊv /

noun

1. a small indentation or recess in the shoreline of a sea, lake, or river.

2. a sheltered nook.

3. a hollow or recess in a mountain; cave; cavern.

4. a narrow pass between woods or hills.

5. a sheltered area between woods or hills.

6. Architecture.

   1. a concave surface or molding.

   2. a concave surface forming part of a ceiling at its edge so as to eliminate the usual interior angle between the wall and ceiling.

---

verb (used with or without object)

coved, coving

1. to make or become a cove.

cove ² American  

[kohv] / koʊv /

noun

1. British Slang. a person; fellow.

2. Australian Slang. a manager, especially of a sheep station.

---

cove ¹ British  

/ kəʊv /

noun

1. a small bay or inlet, usually between rocky headlands

2. a narrow cavern formed in the sides of cliffs, mountains, etc, usually by erosion

3. a sheltered place

4. Also called: coving.  architect a concave curved surface between the wall and ceiling of a room

---

verb

1. (tr) to form an architectural cove in

cove ² British  

/ kəʊv /

noun

1. old-fashioned a fellow; chap

2. history an overseer of convict labourers

---

Etymology

Origin of cove¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English cofa “cave, den, closet”; cognate with Old Norse kofi “hut,” Greek gýpē “cave”

Origin of cove²

First recorded in 1560–70; of uncertain origin; perhaps from Romani kova “creature, thing, person”

Explanation

A cove is a small, sheltered part of an ocean's coast. A cove can be a good place to put a sea kayak in the water and start paddling along the shore. A cove is basically the same thing as a "bay," but smaller. Coves are protected coastal areas affected by tides and connected to the open sea by a narrow entrance. The water in a cove is calmer than the open ocean, and the cove itself is often oval or circular in shape. The earliest meaning of cove was "den or cave," and later "small bay," probably influenced by a Scottish meaning of the word, "hollow place in coastal rocks."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cove coved coving

Aesthetics aside, I wish the charging port was not hidden in the left-side cove.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026

But south of the tunnel, Highway 1 still parallels a stretch of towering cliffs overlooking a sheltered cove.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026

This tucked-away cove is one of the most iconic areas of the lake, known for its turquoise waters, steep granite cliffs and dense pine forests.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2025

Kenzie said his belongings had been found by police and coastguard at a cove accessed by boat.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2024

I pictured them surging into the little cove and breaking with a roar upon the rocks, then running swift and strong to the shelving beach.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

Another highlight comes downstairs, where a game room with an extravagant wet bar features murals, coved ceilings and polished concrete floors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2022

Though it is state-of-the-art, the gallery looks splendidly 19th-century, with a coved ceiling and an overhead window that lets daylight in.

From Economist ● Sep. 18, 2014

There are 26 rooms featuring coved ceilings, cornices and natural light from skylights in 18 of the galleries.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 15, 2012

This led by the late 1960s to works known as light encasements, squares of monochrome plastic with neon lights embedded along the edges, intended to be installed in white rooms with coved corners.

From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2012

Then comes an enormous dining-hall, the coved ceiling of which, supported by noble pillars and ornamented with stuccoes in relief, is in perfect keeping with the style of the rest of the ornamentation.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 097, January, 1876 by Various

Among those who left their mark are a group believed to have worked on the coving in 1968 and the earliest, a plasterer, T Harwood whose signature is dated 1843.

From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025

This day of proceedings was characterized by those coving the trial as tense, as LaPierre repeatedly "tried to insert justifications for expenditures which Sheehan elicited in his questions."

From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2021

I like to think the old face is still underneath like a piece of buried Victorian coving, snarling and bantering to itself behind the immobile corporate façade.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 2, 2010

The heads are long, erect, largest at the top, and taper towards the root,—the exterior leaves clasping or coving over and around the head in the manner of a hood, or cowl.

From The Field and Garden Vegetables of America Containing Full Descriptions of Nearly Eleven Hundred Species and Varietes; With Directions for Propagation, Culture and Use. by Fearing Burr

In the bratini and kovsh the bulging form of ornament, the coving up of the bottoms of the bowls, and the use of twisted lobes are very common.

From Russia As Seen and Described by Famous Writers by Esther Singleton