Cove /(kōv)/

Cove

n.
  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.
  2. A strip of prairie extending into woodland; also, a recess in the side of a mountain. [U.S.]
  3. A concave molding. (Arch.)

Cove

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Coved; p. pr. & vb. n. Coving

  1. To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove. (Arch.)
    The mosques and other buildings of the Arabians are rounded into domes and coved roofs.
    — H. Swinburne.

Phrases & Compounds

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.

Cove

v. t.
  1. To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs. [Obs.]
    Not being able to cove or sit upon them [eggs], she [the female tortoise] bestoweth them in the gravel.

Cove

n.
  1. 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.