/ˈkʌvi/
OriginFrom cove + -y (diminutive suffix). Cove is derived from Romani kodo (“this one; him”) or kova (“that person”).
- A brood or family of partridges (family Phasianidae), which includes game birds such as grouse (tribe Tetraonini) and ptarmigans (tribe Tetraonini, genus Lagopus).
“But, loa, with a ſuddeyn fluſhing thee galligut Harpeys / From mountayns flitter, with gaggling whirlerye flapping / Their wings: […] This coouie rauenouſe, and ſwift with a deſperat onſet, / They gri”
“[S]o leacherous they [female partridges] are, that ſetting aſide the naturall affection and love to their young covie, vvhen they are broodie, […] yet if they hear once the Foulers chanterell comming ”
“[A]s for the partridges vvhen they be laid for by the fovvler, together vvith their covin of young birds, they ſuffer them to flie avvay as vvell as they can, and make ſhift to ſave themſelves, but th”
- broadlyA 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 yo”
“No sooner had I spoken than a covey of perhaps twenty birds flushed wild ahead of us and disappeared into the pine woods. […] Just the slamming of a car door, too much talking, or a fast-moving dog wi”
- broadly, figurativelyA 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.”
- British, dated, familiar, slangA 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.'”
- intransitiveTo gather into a group.
“Our fortunes and our ſelves, are things ſo cloſely linked, that vve knovv not vvhich is the cauſe of the love that vve finde, vvhen theſe tvvo ſhall part, vve may then diſcover to vvhich of them affec”
“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.”
Formscovies(plural) · coveys(plural) · covie(alternative) · coveys(present, singular, third-person) · coveying(participle, present) · coveyed(participle, past) · coveyed(past) · Coveys(plural)