The Collaborative International Dictionary
Couch \Couch\ (kouch), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Couched (koucht); p. pr. & vb. n. Couching.] [F. coucher to lay down, lie down, OF. colchier, fr. L. collocare to lay, put, place; col- + locare to place, fr. locus place. See Locus.]
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To lay upon a bed or other resting place.
Where unbruised youth, with unstuffed brain, Does couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.
--Shak. -
To arrange or dispose as in a bed; -- sometimes followed by the reflexive pronoun.
The waters couch themselves as may be to the center of this globe, in a spherical convexity.
--T. Burnet. -
To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.
It is at this day in use at Gaza, to couch potsherds, or vessels of earth, in their walls.
--Bacon. (Paper Making) To transfer (as sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire cloth mold to a felt blanket, for further drying.
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To conceal; to include or involve darkly.
There is all this, and more, that lies naturally couched under this allegory.
--L'Estrange. To arrange; to place; to inlay. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.-
To put into some form of language; to express; to phrase; -- used with in and under.
A well-couched invective.
--Milton.I had received a letter from Flora couched in rather cool terms.
--Blackw. Mag. -
(Med.) To treat by pushing down or displacing the opaque lens with a needle; as, to couch a cataract.
To couch a spear or To couch a lance, to lower to the position of attack; to place in rest.
He stooped his head, and couched his spear, And spurred his steed to full career.
--Sir W. Scott.To couch malt, to spread malt on a floor.
--Mortimer.
Couched \Couched\ (koucht), a. (Her.) Same as Couch?.
Wiktionary
(context heraldry English) couché v
(en-past of: couch)
Usage examples of "couched".
All this was couched in the floweriest language, with great gestures and ceremonial pauses.
They couched the camels and fed them a small ration of crushed dhurra meal, then checked their harness and saddles for any sign of galling or chafing.
The camels groaned and bellowed softly when they were couched and again when they were forced to their feet to resume the march.
The camels were couched in direct sunlight, which would have brought the blood of any other man or beast to the boil but they showed no discomfort.
He couched and tethered his mount below the skyline, then crept forward.
Once the six camels were couched Penrod went to each waters king and lifted it to judge the remaining contents.
They took the camels behind the ridge and couched them out of sight from the river plain.
Although he wore the green turban of an emir, he was not a greybeard but a warrior in his prime, and he rode with the menace of a couched lance, slim, supple and deadly.
In the middle of the next afternoon they couched the camels in the lengthening shadow of a small volcanic hillock and fed them on the fodder they had cut on the riverbank.
The two troopers leant across the backs of their couched camels and took aim.
The baggage animals and their handlers moved back and couched in a dense mass in the centre.
It slowed and hesitated, heaved forward again, then ran up against the mass of couched camels of the British baggage train, and stopped dead.
I unfolded to him something of those sublime allegories which are couched beneath her worship.
A fox, couched before the fire, gazed upon the strangers with its bright and red eye—its hair bristling—and a low growl stealing from between its teeth.
Through the darkness glared forth two burning eyes—the lightning flashed and lingered athwart the temple—and Glaucus, with a shudder, perceived the lion to which he had been doomed couched beneath the pillars—and, close beside it, unwitting of the vicinity, lay the giant form of him who had accosted them—the wounded gladiator, Niger.