Meanings
plural couchettes
- rareA couch.
The doctor […] desired they would have the goodness to repose themselves without ceremony, each in his respective couchette, while he and his friend Mr. Pallet would place themselves upright at the ends, that they might have the pleasure of serving those that lay along.
1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC - A compartment on a passenger train having berths for sleeping.
But I was disturbed to find a blot on my conception of the ultra-modern S.N.C.F.—the couchette car offered neither hot water nor, unless I looked in the wrong places, an electric razor point.
1962 July, Marcus Newman, “By Car-Sleeper to Switzerland”, in Modern Railways, page 50 - A berth in such a compartment.
Origin
- Frenchcouchette
- Frenchcouchette
- Englishcouchette
Borrowed from French couchette.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with couchette
Cite this entry
couchette. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/couchette
“couchette.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/couchette. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “couchette,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/couchette.
Source: couchette on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.