covie

plural covies

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of covey.First known use 17th–18th c.

present singular third person covies · participle present covying · participle past covied · past covied

1. alternativeintransitiveAlternative spelling of covey (“to gather into a group”).

   The lapwing's covied tribes forsake / The fens, to seek the glassy lake.

   1832 January, Charles May, “Sonnets. Day-break on the Scotch Coast.”, in The Pocket Magazine, volume I, London: James Robins & Co. […], →OCLC, sonnet no. I, page 252

   1 more example

   Our fortunes and our ſelves, are things ſo cloſely linked, that vve knovv not vvhich is the cauſe of the love that vve finde, vvhen theſe tvvo ſhall part, vve may then diſcover to vvhich of them affection vvill make vvinge; vvhen they are covied together vve knovv not vvhich is in purſuit; vvhen they riſe and breake, vve ſhall then ſee vvhich is aimed at.

   1649, Edw[ard] Burton, “Of the Triall of Faith and Friendship”, in The Fathers Legacy: Or Burtons Collections. […], London: […] John Clowes, for Mathew Walbancke […], →OCLC, page 117

present singular third person covies · participle present covying · participle past covied · past covied · alternative couvey

1. alsoambitransitivefigurativelyobsoleteSynonym of cove (“of a bird or other animal: to brood, cover, incubate, or sit over (eggs)”).

   Darling, of all the sweet thoughts that ever covied in thy heart and took wing from thy pretty lips, that is to me the noblest, sweetest, best.

   1869, A[manda] M[etcalf] Bright, “The Cascade”, in The Three Bernices; or, Ansermo of the Crag, Philadelphia, Pa.: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, […], →OCLC, page 87

   1 more example

   Their [tortoises'] manner is to go aland, vvhere among the graſſe they lay egges as bigge as birds egs, to the number commonly of an hundred. […] [I]n the night time ſit upon them: they couvie a whole yeere before they hatch.

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book IX.] Of Sea Tortoises, and How They are Taken.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC

   Synonyms: cove