couch

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one…

   An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa.

   • […] I want to try to describe my efforts to take psychoanalysis as a method off the couch and into the work of creating and using a political conference table.
2. 2

   A bed, a resting-place.

   • O Sleepe, O gentle Sleepe, […] O thou dull God, why lyeſt thou with the vilde, / In loathſome Beds, and leau'st the Kingly Couch, / A Watch-caſe, or a common Larum-Bell?
   • [A]pproach thy grave / Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch / About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
   • [H]e and those / Shall bide eternal bedfellows / Where low upon the couch he lies / Whence he never shall arise.
3. 3

   The den of an otter.

   • A couch was located under the roots of an uprooted tree in a medium dense spruce patch and the second couch was located under a free standing spruce along a regulation channel.
4. ›+ 18 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.

   2. 5

      A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting

      A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.

      • a couch of malt
   3. 6

      Psychotherapy.

      • He spent years on the couch going over his traumatic childhood.
   4. 7

      Voters who opt out of voting, usually by staying home on their couch.

      • If Kamala Harris replaces Joe Biden in the 2024 election, analysts warn that she will lose to the couch.
   5. 8

      To lie down

      To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose).

      • Why did you ſo, doth not the Gentleman / Deſerue as full as fortunate a bed, / As euer Beatrice ſhall couch upon?
      • I call'd my Loue falſe Loue: but what ſaid he then? / Sing Willough, &c. / If I court mo women, you'le couch with mo men.
      • Stay for me, / Where Soules do couch on Flowers, wee'l hand in hand, / And with our ſprightly Port make the Ghoſtes gaze: […].
   6. 9

      To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.

      To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.

      • [T]hen let the Trumpets ſound / The Tucket Sonuance, and the Note to mount: / For our approach ſhall ſo much dare the field, / That England ſhall couch downe in feare, and yeeld.
   7. 10

      To lay something upon a bed or other resting place.

      • But where vnbruſed youth with vnſtuft braine / Doth couch his lims, there, golden ſleepe doth raigne; […]
   8. 11

      To arrange or dispose as if in a bed.

   9. 12

      To lay or deposit in a bed or layer

      To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.

      • It is, at this Day, in uſe, in Gaza, to couch Pot-Sheards or Veſſels of Earth, in their Walls, to gather the Wind from the top, and to paſſe it downe in Spouts into Roomes. It is a Device for Freſhneſſe, in great Heats; […]
   10. 13

       To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack.

       • And fairly couching his ſteel-headed Spear, / Him firſt ſaluted with a ſturdy Stroke: / It booted nought Sir Guyon, coming near, / To think ſuch hideous Puiſſance on foot to bear.
   11. 14

       In the treatment of a cataract in the eye, to displace the opaque lens with a sharp…

       In the treatment of a cataract in the eye, to displace the opaque lens with a sharp object such as a needle. The technique is regarded as largely obsolete.

   12. 15

       To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt…

       To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying.

       • Couching involves transferring the sheet of paper from the mould to the felt. […] After couching the sheet, place a new felt on top and repeat the operation.
   13. 16

       To attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture.

       • These curtains we couched in white cord with quaint designs.
   14. 17

       To phrase in a particular style

       To phrase in a particular style; to use specific wording for.

       • He couched it as a request, but it was an order.
       • And here I should observe that I had received a letter from Flora couched in rather cool terms, congratulating me on my marriage; […]
   15. 18

       To lie down for concealment

       To lie down for concealment; to conceal, to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly or secretly.

       • Come, come: wee'll couch i'th Caſtle-ditch, till we ſee the light of our Fairies.
       • You have overlooked a fallacy couched in the experiment of the stick.
   16. 19

       Couch grass, a species of persistent grass, Elymus repens, usually considered a weed.

       • The first field it did was one on which Swedes had been roughly planted the year previously, but it had not been touched since the crop was eaten off, and was then a perfect wilderness of Couch, Docks, Thistles, and Dandelions.
       • After he knew that he would have to give up the farm in two years he ploughed it up, had a thin crop of oats, and sowed it again with winter oats. In February, 1914, it was a field of couch.
       • The lateral growth of these underground shoots can be very rapid, so that, from a small patch of couch, a large area of coffee can become infested in a short time.
   17. 20

       A surname.

   18. 21

       An unincorporated community in Mason County, West Virginia, United States.

The neighborhood