| 释义 |
▪ I. covey, n.1|ˈkʌvɪ|
Forms: 5 coue, coueye, 6–7 covie, coovie, (6 cooui), 7 couvie, covye, 5–8 covy, 5– covey.
[ME., ad. OF. covée, mod.F. couvée brood = It. covata:—Rom. type *cub-āta, lit. a hatching, f. L. cubāre, It. covare, F. couver to sit, incubate, hatch.]
1. A brood or hatch of partridges; a family of partridges keeping together during the first season. (Sometimes also of grouse, ptarmigan, etc.)
c1440Promp. Parv. 96/2 Covey of pertrychys (H.P. coue, or couy). 1486Bk. St. Albans B iij b, Let yowre spanyellis fynde a Couy of partrichys. 1583Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 77 This cooui rauenouse [of harpies]..They gripte in tallants the meat. 1589Pappe with a Hatchet E ij, There is not a better Spanniell in England to spring a couie. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 219 The partridges..together with their coovie of young birds. 1614T. Adams Devil's Banquet 119 Sinne is..like the Partridges, which flye by Coueys. 1720Gay Poems (1745) I. 19 The fluttering coveys from the stubble rise. 1766Pennant Zool., Partridge (1812) I. 365 A partridge followed by a large covey of very young birds. 1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. ix. 132 A covey of ptarmigans. 1868Dilke Greater Brit. I. 141 The sage-brush..gave shelter to a few coveys of sage-hens.
2. fig. and transf. A family, party, or set (of persons or things).
1590Greene Fr. Bacon v. (1630) 16 Here's..a couie of Cockscombes. a1616Beaum. & Fl. Elder Bro. iv. iv, Who are they in the corner? As I live, a covey of fiddlers. 1641Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. App. 9 There are so many Covies of New Doctrines sprung up ever and anon. a1661Fuller Worthies iii. 124. I never did spring such a Covye of Mathematicians all at once. 1827De Quincey Murder Wks. IV. 76 The whole covey of victims was thus netted. 1859Thackeray Virgin. xxvii, A whole covey of trumps was ranged in one corner.
▪ II. † covey, n.2 Obs.
[perh. derivative of cove n.1 in its OE. sense of ‘closet’, etc.]
A pantry.
1593Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (Surtees) 68 From the cellar-door to the pantry or covey-door. Ibid. 77 A little vault at the west end of the Frater house like unto a pantry, called the Covey. [1861Our English Home 80 The pantry, called by ancient housekeepers the covey.]
▪ III. covey, n.3 slang or vulgar.|ˈkəʊvɪ|
[f. cove n.2 + -y4.]
Little ‘cove’. (Used of an intimate or associate: cf. chappie.)
1821P. Egan Life in Lond. 287 The covey was no scholard, as he asserted. 1838Dickens O. Twist viii, ‘Hullo! my covey, what's the row?’ 1840Barham Ingol. Leg., Hamilton Tighe, ‘What a rum old covey is Hairy-faced Dick!’
▪ IV. † coˈvey, n.5 Obs.
Perh. = convey, convoy (but of earlier date).
c1325Coer de L. 6367 Al that nyght, with fayr covey, They rede forth by the way.
▪ V. † ˈcovey, v. Obs.
To hatch: see couvey. |