couch1
/kaʊtʃ
/noun
1A long upholstered piece of furniture for several people to sit on: I sat in an armchair and they sat on the couch...
- Furniture includes chairs and couches upholstered in amber, magenta, and burgundy.
- These prices are inclusive of a full furniture package to include beds, wardrobes, couches, curtains, tables and chairs.
- The only actual piece of furniture was a worn couch placed in the middle of the room, facing the far wall.
Synonyms
settee, sofa, divan, chaise longue, chesterfield, love seat, settle, ottoman;
British put-you-up;
North American day bed, davenport, studio couch, sectional;
French canapé, tête-à-tête
rare squab
1.1A reclining seat with a headrest at one end on which a psychoanalyst’s subject or doctor’s patient lies while undergoing treatment: the child was lying on the examination couch...
- They enter his office to be faced with a comfortable leather sofa and an examination couch, complete with stirrups.
- Although I had never encountered status asthmaticus, the patient struggling for breath on the examination couch fitted the image locked in my memory.
- One UK department introduced a system where a doctor saw all patients with minor injuries that did not need an examination couch or an urgent intervention.
verb [with object]
1Express (something) in language of a specified style: the assurances were couched in general terms...
- Notice how frequently they couch immoral concepts in language using the word ‘moral’?
- Of the three, the last is poetry couched in a simple language that can be understood even by those who have a basic knowledge of Sanskrit.
- Many of these claims for interactivity are couched in terms that cast the individual as a consumer rather than a citizen.
Synonyms
express, phrase, word, frame, put, formulate, style, render, set forth, put across, convey, communicate, say, state, utter, voice
2 literary Lay down: two fair creatures, couched side by side in deepest grass
3 archaic Lower (a spear) to the position for attack: To arms! cried Mortimer, and couch’d his quiv’ring lance
4 (usually as noun couching) chiefly historical Treat (a cataract) by pushing the lens of the eye downwards and backwards, out of line with the pupil.The surgeon performed a type of cataract surgery known as couching....
- The successful removal of the cataract by the couching method that he advocated and practised as early as in the 18th Century was perhaps as stunning an achievement as those of his British and European counterparts of that era.
5(In embroidery) fix (a thread) to a fabric by stitching it down flat with another thread: gold and silver threads couched by hand...
- Try pin-tucking fabric, or couching down decorative threads, embroider by hand or by machine on the fronts, or even try beading an evening vest.
- Nine five-clawed dragons are couched in gold thread.
- Machine or hand embellishments, from elaborate beading and embroidery to couching with glitzy cords or braids, will enhance your appliqué.
Phrases
on the couch
Origin
Middle English (as a noun denoting something to sleep on; as a verb in the sense 'lay something down'): from Old French couche (noun), coucher (verb), from Latin collocare 'place together' (see collocate).
Rhymes
couch2
/kaʊtʃ/ /kuːtʃ /(also couch grass)
noun [mass noun]
A coarse grass with long creeping roots, which can be a serious weed in gardens.
- Genera Elymus and Agropyron, family Gramineae: several species, in particular the Eurasian common couch (E. repens).
- Raspberries creep underground like couch grass, though unfortunately not so rampantly.
- It's constructed in the Han architectural style with yellow walls, black wood and couch grass.
Origin
Late 16th century: variant of quitch.