cove

[ kohv ]

/ koʊv /

noun

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

a sheltered nook.

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

a narrow pass between woods or hills.

a sheltered area between woods or hills.

Architecture.

a concave surface or molding.
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, cov·ing.

to make or become a cove.

Words nearby cove

covariance, covariant, covariant theory, covariate, covarrubias, cove, cove lighting, cove stripe, covellite, coven, covenant

Origin of cove

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

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH cove

bay cove gulf inlet

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for coved

The nave, too, is covered with a wooden roof, a kind of coved roof with tie-beams.
Sketches of Travel in Normandy and Maine|Edward A. Freeman
Its ceiling, coved like the other, seemed made of some self-radiating substance from which came both light and heat.
The Blind Spot|Austin Hall
On the coved portion of it, within the shields, are written the subjects of the books on the shelves beneath.
The Care of Books|John Willis Clark
At the end is a gallery or balcony for the musicians, which on its coved front has a florid coat of arms of foreign heraldry.
The Lost Stradivarius|John Meade Falkner

These walls were painted in encaustic, corresponding with the coved ceiling, which was richly adorned in the same fashion.
Tancred|Benjamin Disraeli

British Dictionary definitions for coved (1 of 2)

cove¹

/ (kəʊv) /

noun

a small bay or inlet, usually between rocky headlands

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

a sheltered place

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

verb

(tr) to form an architectural cove in

Word Origin for cove

Old English cofa; related to Old Norse kofi, Old High German kubisi tent

British Dictionary definitions for coved (2 of 2)

cove²

/ (kəʊv) /

noun

old-fashioned, slang, British and Australian a fellow; chap

Australian history an overseer of convict labourers

Word Origin for cove

C16: probably from Romany kova thing, person

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012