cove
pronunciation
How to pronounce cove in British English:
UK [kəʊv]
How to pronounce cove in American English:
US [koʊv]
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- Noun:
- a small inlet
- small or narrow cave in the side of a cliff or mountain
Word Origin
- cove
- cove: [OE] Old English cofa meant ‘small room’, as used for sleeping in or as a storeroom. It was descended from Germanic *kubon, which was probably also the ultimate ancestor of cubbyhole [19] (the superficially similar cubicle is not related). In the late Old English period this seems to have developed in northern and Scottish dialects to ‘small hollow place in coastal rocks, cave’, and hence (although not, apparently, until as late as the 16th century) to ‘small bay’. (The other cove [16], a dated slang term for ‘chap’, may come from Romany kova ‘thing, person’.)=> cubbyhole
- cove (n.1)
- early 14c., "den, cave," from Old English cofa "small chamber, cell," from Proto-Germanic *kubon (compare Old High German kubisi "tent, hut," German Koben "pigsty," Old Norse kofi "hut, shed"). Extension of meaning to "small bay" is 1580s, apparently via Scottish dialectal meaning "small hollow place in coastal rocks" (a survival of an Old English secondary sense).
- cove (n.2)
- "fellow, chap," slang from at least 1560s, said to be from Romany (Gypsy) cova "that man."
Example
- 1. Where lies shipwreck cove and the town of shipwreck .
- 2. He guided us into a narrow cove almost hidden among the giant slabs . The water darkened and the temperature dropped .
- 3. If they were smart , the kids would try to find a quiet cove or harbour where there were no waves and start measuring .
- 4. Coming in at a little over twice the size of branson 's caribbean cove , copperfield 's musha cay only has half the servants , but don 't let that put you off .
- 5. The government received scant interest from private developers when it launched land sales at sentosa cove in 2003 .