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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
coven
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Conrad was settled in an armchair in a far corner and felt like a witch in a coven.
▪ I imagined solemn covens chanting, straggling torchlight processions winding up to mountain tops, stone circles, sacred trees and springs.
▪ Many of the Witch King's coven fell stone dead.
▪ She was placed in a safe house but later returned to the coven of her own free will.
▪ Such societies or covens batten on their own secrecy.
▪ The coven will also employ magic, but this is only secondary to its beliefs and worship.
▪ They could have been mistaken for a coven of witches huddling together.
▪ This coven deals in secret assassination.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
coven

"a gathering of witches," 1660s, earlier (c.1500) a variant of covent, cuvent early forms of convent. Association with witches arose in Scotland, but not popularized until Sir Walter Scott used it in this sense in "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" (1830).Efter that tym ther vold meit bot somtymes a Coven, somtymes mor, somtymes les; bot a Grand Meitting vold be about the end of ilk Quarter. Ther is threttein persones in ilk Coeven; and ilk on of vs has an Sprit to wait wpon ws, quhan ve pleas to call wpon him. I remember not all the Spritis names; bot thair is on called "Swein," quhilk waitis wpon the said Margret Wilson in Aulderne; he is still clothed in grass-grein .... ["Criminal Trials in Scotland," III, appendix, p.606, confession of Issobell Gowdie in Lochloy in 1662]

Wiktionary
coven

n. 1 A clique that shares common interests or activity. 2 A formal group or assembly of witches.

WordNet
coven

n. an assembly of witches; usually 13 witches

Wikipedia
Coven

A coven or covan usually refers to a gathering of witches. The word "coven" remained largely unused in English until 1921 when Margaret Murray promoted the idea, now much disputed, that all witches across Europe met in groups of thirteen which they called "covens."

Coven (band)

Coven is an American psychedelic rock with occult lyrics band formed in the late 1960s. They had a top 40 hit in 1971 with the song " One Tin Soldier", the theme song of the movie Billy Jack.

Coven was composed of vocalist Esther "Jinx" Dawson, bassist Greg "Oz" Osborne (not to be confused with Ozzy Osbourne), guitarist Chris Neilsen, keyboardist Rick Durrett (later replaced by John Hobbs), and drummer Steve Ross. They are recognized as being the band that first introduced the " Sign of the Horns" to rock, metal and pop culture (as seen on their 1969 debut album release Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls).

Coven (film)

Coven is a 1997 black and white direct-to-video horror short film directed by Mark Borchardt. The making of the film was documented in the 1999 award-winning independent film American Movie. It was shot with local talent around Milwaukee.

Coven (disambiguation)

A coven or covan is a gathering of witches:

  • Two of the first modern covens to publicly appear, during the 1950s and 1960s, were Gerald Gardner's Bricket Wood coven and Roy Bowers' Clan of Tubal Cain.

It may also refer to:

  • Coven (band)
  • Coven (film)
  • American Horror Story: Coven
  • Coven, Staffordshire
  • The Coven (film)

Usage examples of "coven".

As second mistress of the Coven, she could have used her powers to punish him, but doing the physical work herself was always so much more pleasurable.

There simply had been no need to sort them all out, and so the Coven exterminated them by means of a plague.

If the entire Coven was not present at the appointed hour, she would see to it that they were punished with some mild form of the Vagaries.

As First Mistress of the Coven she had purposely decided to be late, to keep the other mistresses waiting.

The man who now stood before the Coven was their selection to command it all.

The wizard, powerless against the combined talents of the Coven, struggled pitifully in his chair, trying to escape while the unthinkable happened.

He silently hoped that when the battle was over, the Coven would allow the Minions to indulge in a different kind of conquest.

Several months ago the Coven had ordered the construction of a very special warship.

Apparently more than one of the Coven was trained in this particular talent.

Every man on the warship, and he assumed those behind them in the other ships as well, stood in awe as the second mistress of the Coven commanded the ocean to rise.

Faegan, probably the most powerful of all of you, was the one who helped the Coven in their cause.

The Coven now has Shailiha and the stone, so we were only partly successful, but at least you and I are alive.

No power in the world that I know of is strong enough to wrest her away from a sorceress of the Coven who is wearing the stone.

Tome of the Paragon was known only to the wizards and not to the Coven, then how did the mistresses learn of the existence of the Paragon, and teach themselves the Vagaries?

The second mistress of the Coven turned her attention to the prow of her ship, and to the head of King Nicholas, impaled upon it.