couch
see also: Couch
Pronunciation Noun

couch (plural couches)

  1. An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person.
  2. A bed, a resting-place.
  3. The den of an otter.
  4. (art, painting and gilding) A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.
  5. (brewing) A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.
    a couch of malt
  6. (metonym, usually as "the couch") Psychotherapy.
    He spent years on the couch going over his traumatic childhood.
Synonyms Translations Verb

couch (couches, present participle couching; past and past participle couched)

  1. To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose).
    Synonyms: lie down, recline
  2. To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 606546721 ↗, book III, canto I, stanza IV; republished as The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume II, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear's Head, over against Catherine-street in the Strand, 1715, OCLC 645789119 ↗, page 368 ↗:
      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 that Age bad him that Burden ſpare, / And yield it thoſe that ſtouter could it wield: […]
  3. (transitive) To lay#Verb|lay something upon a bed or other resting place.
  4. (transitive) To arrange or dispose as if in a bed.
    • 1684, Thomas Burnet, The Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of All the General Changes which it Hath Already Undergone, or Is to Undergo, Till the Consummation of All Things, volume I, London: Printed by R[oger] Norton for Walter Kettilby, OCLC 12330969 ↗, book I; republished as The Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of All the General Changes which it Hath Already Undergone, or Is to Undergo, Till the Consummation of All Things. The Two First Books Concerning the Deluge, and Concerning Paradise, 3rd edition, volume I, London: Printed for R[oger] N[orton] for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1697, OCLC 228725686 ↗, page 56 ↗:
      [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, and the Earth made even, the Waters would not overflow its ſmooth ſurface; […]
  5. (transitive) To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed#Verb|bed.
    • 1627, Francis Bacon, “VIII. Century”, in Sylua Syluarum: or A Naturall Historie: in Ten Centuries. VVritten by the Right Honourable Francis Lo[rd] Verulam Viscount St. Alban. Published after the Authors Death, by VVilliam Rawley Doctor of Diuinitie, late His Lordships Chaplaine, London: Printed by I[ohn] H[aviland and Augustine Mathewes] for William Lee at the Turks Head in Fleet-street, next to the Miter, OCLC 606502643 ↗; republished as Sylva Sylvarvm: or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centvries. Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam Viscount St. Alban. Published after the Authors Death, by William Rawley Doctor in Divinitie, One of His Majesties Chaplaines. Hereunto is now Added an Alphabeticall Table of the Principall Things Contained in the Whole Worke, London: Printed by John Haviland for William Lee, and are to be sold by John Williams, 1635, OCLC 606502717 ↗, page 197 ↗:
      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 Freſhneſſe, in great Heats; […]
  6. (transitive) To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 606546721 ↗, book III, canto V, stanza III; republished as The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume II, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear's Head, over against Catherine-street in the Strand, 1715, OCLC 645789119 ↗, page 240 ↗:
      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.
    • 1805, Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row, and A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh; by James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, OCLC 1250572 ↗, canto III, stanza V; 2nd edition, London, Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row, and A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh; by James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1805, OCLC 928165697 ↗, page 76 ↗:
      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 champions proud / Seemed like the bursting thunder-cloud.
  7. (ophthalmology, transitive) In 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.
  8. (paper-making, transitive) To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt#Noun|felt blanket for further drying.
  9. (sewing, transitive) To attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture.
  10. To phrase in a particular style; to use specific wording for.
    Synonyms: explain, express, phrase, term
    He couched it as a request, but it was an order.
  11. (archaic) To lie down for concealment; to conceal, to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly or secretly.
    • 1832, Isaac Taylor, “The State of Sacred Science: ‘Thy Testimonies are My Meditation’”, in Saturday Evening, London: Holdsworth and Ball, OCLC 262702496 ↗; republished Hingham, Mass.: Published by C. & E. B. Gill [...], 1833, OCLC 191249371 ↗, page 91 ↗:
      […] 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 couch beneath the words of the Scripture?
Translations
  • French: (sur un sofa or sur un canapé) s'allonger
  • Italian: (su un divano or su un sofa) sdraiarsi
Translations Noun

couch (uncountable)

  1. couch grass, a species of persistent grass, Elymus repens, usually considered a weed.

Couch
Proper noun
  1. Surname



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