What is "cove"

Cove \Cove\, v. t. [CF. F. couver, It. covare. See Covey.] To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs.

Not being able to cove or sit upon them [eggs], she [the female tortoise] bestoweth them in the gravel.
--Holland.

Cove \Cove\ (k[=o]v), n. [AS. cofa room; akin to G. koben pigsty, orig., hut, Icel. kofi hut, and perh. to E. cobalt.]

1. A retired nook; especially, a small, sheltered inlet, creek, or bay; a recess in the shore.

   Vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks.
   --Holland.

2. A strip of prairie extending into woodland; also, a recess in the side of a mountain. [U.S.]

3. (Arch.)

   1. A concave molding.

   2. A member, whose section is a concave curve, used especially with regard to an inner roof or ceiling, as around a skylight.

Cove \Cove\, n. [A gypsy word, covo that man, covi that woman.] A boy or man of any age or station. [Slang]

There's a gentry cove here.
--Wit's Recreations (1654).

Now, look to it, coves, that all the beef and drink Be not filched from us.
--Mrs. Browning.

Cove \Cove\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Coved (k?vd); p. pr. & vb. n. Coving.] (Arch.) To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove.

The mosques and other buildings of the Arabians are rounded into domes and coved roofs.
--H. Swinburne.

Coved ceiling, a ceiling, the part of which next the wail is constructed in a cove.

Coved vault, a vault composed of four coves meeting in a central point, and therefore the reverse of a groined vault.

early 14c., "den, cave," from Old English cofa "small chamber, cell," from Proto-Germanic *kubon (compare Old High German kubisi "tent, hut," German Koben "pigsty," Old Norse kofi "hut, shed"). Extension of meaning to "small bay" is 1580s, apparently via Scottish dialectal meaning "small hollow place in coastal rocks" (a survival of an Old English secondary sense).

"fellow, chap," slang from at least 1560s, said to be from Romany (Gypsy) cova "that man."

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context now uncommon English) A hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern. (from 9th c.) 2 (context architecture English) A concave vault or archway, especially the arch of a ceiling. (from 16th c.) 3 A small coastal inlet, especially one having high cliffs protecting vessels from prevailing winds. (from 16th c.) 4 (context US English) A strip of prairie extending into woodland. 5 A recess or sheltered area on the slopes of a mountain. (from 19th c.) 6 (context nautical English) The wooden roof of the stern gallery of an old sailing warship. (from 19th c.) 7 (context nautical English) A thin line, sometimes gilded, along a yacht's strake below deck level. (from 19th c.) vb. (context architecture English) To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove. Etymology 2

n. 1 (context British English) A fellow; a man. 2 (context Australia English) A friend; a mate. Etymology 3

vb. To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs.

1. n. a small inlet

2. small or narrow cave in the side of a cliff or mountain

A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves. Colloquially, the term can be used to describe a sheltered bay.

Geomorphology describes coves as precipitously-walled and rounded cirque-like openings as in a valley extending into or down a mountainside, or in a hollow or nook of a cliff or steep mountainside.

Coves are formed by differential erosion, which occurs when softer rocks are worn away faster than the harder rocks surrounding them. These rocks further erode to form a circular bay with a narrow entrance, called a cove.

A notable example is Lulworth Cove on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England. To its west, a second cove, Stair Hole, is forming.

A cove is a tightly concentrated group of large standing stones found in Neolithic and Bronze Age England. Coves are square or rectangular in plan and seem to have served as small enclosures within other henge, stone circle or avenue features. They consist of three or four orthostats placed together to give the impression of a box. An opening between the stones, oriented south east is also a feature.

They may have developed from the elaborate facades that fronted Neolithic long barrows although their original function is unknown.

Examples include:

• The Longstones in Wiltshire;
• The cove at Avebury Henge in Wiltshire;
• The cove at Stanton Drew in Somerset and
• The cove at Mount Pleasant henge in Dorset

Cové is a city located in the Zou Department of Benin. The commune covers an area of 525 square kilometres and as of 2012 had a population of 43,554 people.

A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet.

Cove or coving may also refer to:

In the central and southern Appalachian Mountains of Eastern North America, a cove is a small valley between two ridge lines that is closed at one or both ends.

Among the places where the word "cove" appears in the name of an Appalachian valley are Morrison Cove in Pennsylvania; Lost Cove, North Carolina; Bumpass Cove, Tennessee; Doran Cove, Grassy Cove, Ladd Cove, in or adjacent to the Sequatchie Valley of Tennessee and Alabama; and numerous locations in the Great Smoky Mountains, including Cades Cove, Greenbrier Cove, Miller Cove, Tuckaleechee Cove, and Wears Cove. Burke's Garden in western Virginia is another example of a cove.