Noun

(en noun)

A friend, acquaintance, or partner; someone with whom one spends time or keeps company

His dog has been his trusted companion for the last five years.

* Shakespeare

Here are your sons again; and I must lose / Two of the sweetest companions in the world.

(dated) A person employed to accompany or travel with another.

(nautical) The framework on the quarterdeck of a sailing ship through which daylight entered the cabins below.

(nautical) The covering of a hatchway on an upper deck which leads to the companionway; the stairs themselves.

(topology) A knot in whose neighborhood another, specified knot meets every meridian disk.

(figuratively) A thing or phenomenon that is closely associated with another thing, phenomenon, or person.

(astronomy) A celestial object that is associated with another.

A knight of the lowest rank in certain orders.

a companion of the Bath

(obsolete, derogatory) A fellow; a rogue.

* 1599 , , III. i. 111:

and let us knog our / prains together to be revenge on this same scald, scurvy, / cogging companion ,

Noun

(en noun)

Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.

* 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)

I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;

Two of the same kind connected or considered together.

* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)

(label) A small number.

* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)

A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle

* 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)

‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’

* 1902 , , Across Coveted Lands :

When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore

* , chapter=1

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.}}

*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1

, passage=And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.}}

One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.

(label) Two forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction (and acting along parallel lines), thus creating the turning effect of a torque or moment.

(label) A couple-close.

(label) That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.

* (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)

It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

I'll go in couples with her.