▪ 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.)
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 96/2 Covey of pertrychys (H.P. coue, or couy). 1486 Bk. St. Albans B iij b, Let yowre spanyellis fynde a Couy of partrichys. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 77 This cooui rauenouse [of harpies]..They gripte in tallants the meat. 1589 Pappe with a Hatchet E ij, There is not a better Spanniell in England to spring a couie. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 219 The partridges..together with their coovie of young birds. 1614 T. Adams Devil's Banquet 119 Sinne is..like the Partridges, which flye by Coueys. 1720 Gay Poems (1745) I. 19 The fluttering coveys from the stubble rise. 1766 Pennant Zool., Partridge (1812) I. 365 A partridge followed by a large covey of very young birds. 1835 Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. ix. 132 A covey of ptarmigans. 1868 Dilke 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).
| 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon v. (1630) 16 Here's..a couie of Cockscombes. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Elder Bro. iv. iv, Who are they in the corner? As I live, a covey of fiddlers. 1641 Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. App. 9 There are so many Covies of New Doctrines sprung up ever and anon. a 1661 Fuller Worthies iii. 124. I never did spring such a Covye of Mathematicians all at once. 1827 De Quincey Murder Wks. IV. 76 The whole covey of victims was thus netted. 1859 Thackeray 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.
| 1593 Rites & 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. [1861 Our 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.)
| 1821 P. Egan Life in Lond. 287 The covey was no scholard, as he asserted. 1838 Dickens O. Twist viii, ‘Hullo! my covey, what's the row?’ 1840 Barham 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).
| c 1325 Coer de L. 6367 Al that nyght, with fayr covey, They rede forth by the way. |
▪ V. † ˈcovey, v. Obs.
To hatch: see couvey.