/kaʊt͡ʃ/, /kuːt͡ʃ/
OriginFrom Middle English couche, cowche, from Old French couche, from the verb (see below). Doublet of cwtch.
- Australia, Canada, Ireland, USAn item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa.
“At a casting workshop, an actor was performing a blank scene […] and he had not bothered to make any choices about why he was on stage, what his motivation was, what he was playing. He had decided who”
“[…] 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.”
“It's not a particularly unique living room. It has a window that faces the street, two broken-in beige couches, a few end tables, a television (not the latest model), and a dark blue throw rug in the ”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.
“For the re-lining, the usual method is to strain a new and strong cloth of an even surface upon the stretcher, to rub it down smooth with pumice stone, and then to give it an even couch of paste, a si”
“Once you have chosen which color of underpainting you will use, you should apply the paint to get the values, lighting, and the likeness perfect. The underpainting is applied using a couch of medium a”
- A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.
“a couch of malt”
“MALTING IN MUNICH. The barley is steeped till the acrospire, in embryo, or seed germ, seems to be quickened; […] As long however as the seed-gum sticks to the husk, it has not been steeped enough for ”
- metonymically, usuallyPsychotherapy.
“He spent years on the couch going over his traumatic childhood.”
- figuratively, usuallyVoters 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.”
- uncountableCouch 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”
“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.”
- intransitiveTo 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: […].”
- intransitiveTo bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.
“At laſt, as thro an open Plain they yode, / They ſpy'd a Knight, that towards pricked fair, / And him beſide an aged Squire there rode, / That ſeem'd to couch under his Shield three-ſquare, / As if th”
“[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.”
- transitiveTo 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; […]”
“The storm seemed to have acquired a second wind, blowing as fiercely as in the morning, and at the tree we couched the beasts and started to upload again. We rolled into our blankets once more, and pa”
- transitiveTo arrange or dispose as if in a bed.
“[T]he Sea and the Land make one Globe, and the waters couch themſelves, as cloſe as may be, to the Center of this Globe in a Spherical convexity; ſo that if all the Mountains and Hills were ſcal'd, an”
- transitiveTo 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 Freſhneſ”
- transitiveTo 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.”
“Stout Deloraine nor sighed, nor prayed, / Nor saint, nor ladye, called to aid: / But he stooped his head, and couched his spear, / And spurred his steed to full career. / The meeting of these champion”
- transitiveIn 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.
“[…] A Man having a Cataract in both Eyes, which intirely deprived him of Sight, committed himſelf to an Oculiſt, who finding them ripe, performed the Operation, and couched the Cataracts with all the ”
- transitiveTo transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying.
“He invented the grooved wood roll or mandrel on which the thin film of wet paper, as couched from the cylinder mould, was wound and thus the sheet built up to the required thickness, when it was cut f”
“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.”
- transitiveTo attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture.
“These curtains we couched in white cord with quaint designs.”
- transitiveTo 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; […]”
“More significantly, rigid deference to [Justin] Bieber’s still-young core fan base keeps things resolutely PG, with any acknowledgement of sex either couched in vague “touch your body” workarounds or ”
- archaic, intransitiveTo 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.”
“[…] Or who, regardless of the powers of calumny that keep their state as ministers of vengeance around the throne of ancient Prejudice, explores anew the half-hidden, half-revealed wonders, that yet c”
- A surname.
- An unincorporated community in Mason County, West Virginia, United States.
Formscouches(plural) · cowch(alternative) · couches(present, singular, third-person) · couching(participle, present) · couched(participle, past) · couched(past)