/ˈhɒvə/, /ˈhʌvə/, /ˈhɑvɚ/
OriginThe verb is derived from Middle English hoveren (“to float in the air, hover; to stay”), probably from hoven (“hover; of a bird: to fly high in the air, soar”) (which it displaced) + -er- (frequentative suffix). Hoven is probably derived from Old English *hōfian, from hōfon, the plural past indicative form of hebban (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift; to heave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to hold, seize”). The English word is analysable as hove (“(obsolete) to remain suspended, float, hover; to linger, wait”) + -er (frequentative suffix).
The noun is derived from the verb.
- transitiveTo keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.
- transitiveOf a bird: to shelter (chicks) under its body and wings; (by extension) of a thing: to cover or surround (something).
“Castration has a ſtrange effect: it emaſculates both man, beaſt, and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex. […] Capons have ſmall combs and gills, and look pallid about the head”
- obsolete, transitiveOf a bird or insect: to flap (its wings) so it can remain stationary in the air.
“O'er the deer Corps ſomtimes her vvings ſhe [an eagle] hovers, / Somtimes the dead breſt vvith her breſt ſhe covers, […]”
“Thus have I lain conceal'd like a vvinter Fly, hoping for ſome bleſt Sun-Shine to vvarm me into Life again, and make me hover my flagging VVings; […]”
- intransitiveTo remain stationary or float in the air.
“The hummingbird hovered by the plant.”
“[T]hough you go to Theaters to see sport, Cupid may cache you ere you departe. The little god hovereth aboute you, and fanneth you with his wings to kindle fire: when you are set as fixed whites, Desi”
“Thus meerely vvith the garment of a grace, / The naked and concealed feind he couerd, / That th'vnexperient gaue the tempter place, / VVhich like a Cherubin aboue them houerd, / VVho young and ſimple ”
- figuratively, intransitiveSometimes followed by over: to hang around or linger in a place, especially in an uncertain manner.
“His pen hovered above the paper.”
“The strange man hovered outside the gents’ toilet.”
“The visitors were hovering at the door, seemingly unwilling to enter.”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo be indecisive or uncertain; to vacillate, to waver.
“Filling in the voting form, I hovered between Labour and Liberal Democrat.”
“And the reason why the land-lord will no longer covenant with him [the husbandman], is, for that he dayly looketh after change and alteration, and hovereth in expectation of new worlds.”
“When the soul is hovering in the last moments of its separation, […] what can support her under such tremblings of thought, such fear, such anxiety, such apprehensions, but the casting of all her care”
- intransitiveChiefly followed by over: to use a mouse or other device to place a cursor over something on a screen such as a hyperlink or icon without clicking, so as to produce a result (such as the appearance of a tooltip).
“A tooltip appears when you hover over this link.”
- intransitiveTo travel in a hovercraft as it moves above a water surface.
- An act, or the state, of remaining stationary in the air or some other place.
- A flock of birds fluttering in the air in one place.
- figurativelyAn act, or the state, of being suspended; a suspension.
- Southern-EnglandA cover; a protection; a shelter; specifically, an overhanging bank or stone under which fish can shelter; also, a shelter for hens brooding their eggs.
“Oyſters grevv vpon boughs of trees (an Indian miracle) vvhich vvere caſt in [the pond] thither, to ſerue as a houer for the fiſh.”
“And now, down the rushing stream, […] past dark hovers under swirling banks, from which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking him to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the fairies sent the”
“Without the instinct of self-preservation, which causes the sea-anemone to contract its tentacles, or the fish to dash into its hover, species would be extermined wholesale by involuntary suicide.”
Formshovers(present, singular, third-person) · hovering(participle, present) · hovered(participle, past) · hovered(past) · hover(infinitive) · hover(first-person, present, singular) · hovered(first-person, past, singular) · hover(present, second-person, singular) · hoverest(archaic, present, second-person, singular) · hovered(past, second-person, singular) · hoveredst(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · hovereth(archaic, present, singular, third-person) · hovered(past, singular, third-person) · hover(plural, present) · hovered(past, plural) · hover(present, subjunctive) · hovered(past, subjunctive) · hover(imperative, present) · -(imperative, past) · hovers(plural)