What is "couching"

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.]

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. (Paper Making) To transfer (as sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire cloth mold to a felt blanket, for further drying.

5. To conceal; to include or involve darkly.

   There is all this, and more, that lies naturally couched under this allegory.
   --L'Estrange.

6. To arrange; to place; to inlay. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

7. 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.

8. (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.

Couching \Couch"ing\, n.

1. (Med.) The operation of putting down or displacing the opaque lens in cataract.

2. Embroidering by laying the materials upon the surface of the foundation, instead of drawing them through.

n. 1 (context medicine English) The operation of putting down or displacing the opaque lens in cataract. 2 (context textiles English) embroider by laying the materials upon the surface of the foundation, instead of drawing them through. vb. (present participle of couch English)

In embroidery, couching and laid work are techniques in which yarn or other materials are laid across the surface of the ground fabric and fastened in place with small stitches of the same or a different yarn.

The couching threads may be either the same color as the laid threads or a contrasting color. When couching threads contrast with laid threads, patterns may be worked in the couching stitches.

Couching is the earliest documented form of cataract surgery. As a cataract is a clouding in the lens of the eye, couching is a technique of dislodging the lens, thus removing the opacity. Although couching is nowadays routinely practiced merely in remote areas in third world countries, it was a precursor to modern cataract surgery and pars plana vitrectomy.