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covey

noun
/ˈkʌvi/US/ˈkəʊvi/UK/ˈkoʊvi/US

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English covei, covey (“brood of partridges, covey; volley of shot; kind of gun”) [and other forms], from Old French covée (“brood (of chickens), clutch”) (modern French couvée), a noun use of the feminine past participle of cover (“to brood (an egg)”) (modern French couver), from Latin cubāre, the present active infinitive of cubō (“to lie down, recline; to incubate; to be broody”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- (“to lie down”). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates French couvée (“brood (of chickens), clutch”), couver (“to brood (an egg)”) Italian covata (“brood, clutch, covey, hatch”), covare (“to brood or incubate (an egg)”)

  1. derived from *ḱewb-✻ — “to lie down”
  2. derived from cubāre
  3. derived from covée — “brood (of chickens), clutch”
  4. inherited from covei

Definitions

  1. A brood or family of partridges (family Phasianidae), which includes game birds such as…

    A brood or family of partridges (family Phasianidae), which includes game birds such as grouse (tribe Tetraonini) and ptarmigans (tribe Tetraonini, genus Lagopus).

  2. A group of other birds, such as quail (superfamily Phasianoidea).

    • Like when you quail huntin' and it's getting dark and you can hear the boss bird whistlin' tryin' to get the covey together again, and he's coming toward you slow and whistlin' soft, cause he knows you somewhere around with your gun.

  3. A group or party of people

    A group or party of people; also, a group or set of things.

    • [T]here is not a better Spanniell in England to spring a couie of queanes than Martin.
    • VVho are they in the corner? As I live, / A covey of Fidlers; I ſhall have ſome muſicke yet […]
    • I never did ſpring ſuch a Covye of Mathematicians all at once, as I met vvith at this time, Cervinus or Hart, Cure, John Stacy and Blach, all bred in Merton Colledge.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. To gather into a group.

      • O'er many a vvinding dale and painful ſteep, / Th' abodes of coveyed grouſe and timid ſheep, / My ſavage journey, curious, I purſue, / Till fam'd Breadalbaine opens on my view.— […]
      • The lapwing's covied tribes forsake / The fens, to seek the glassy lake.

    2. A male person, a man

      A male person, a man; a chap, a chappie.

      • I don't know what would become of these here young chaps, if it wasn't for such careful old coveys as we are— […]
      • Hullo! my covey, what's the row?
      • 'Pooh!' said he, 'you are as easily wounded as an unfledged dove—don't mind what an old covey like me says—I understand it all.'

    3. A surname from Irish.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for covey. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA