Covey vs Covet - What's the difference?
covey | covet |
A group of 8-12 (or more) quail. See gaggle, host, flock.
A brood of partridges, grouse, etc.
A party or group (of persons or things).
* 1906 , O. Henry,
* 1982 , (Lawrence Durrell), Constance'', Faber & Faber 2004 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 736
To brood; to incubate.
* Holland
* 1869 , Florida. Commissioner of Lands and Immigration, Florida: Its Climate, Soil, and Productions (page 108)
(British, slang, dated) A man.
* 1846 , Justin Jones, The prince and the queen; or, Scenes in high life
* 1850 , Waldo Howard, The mistake of a life-time, or, The robber of the Rhine (page 140)
* 1851 , William Thomas Moncrieff, Selections from the dramatic works of William T. Moncrieff
To wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of, often enviously.
To long for inordinately or unlawfully; to hanker after (something forbidden).
To yearn, have or indulge inordinate desire, notably for another's possession.
As verbs the difference between covey and covet
is that covey is to brood; to incubate while covet is to wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of, often enviously.As a noun covey
is a group of 8-12 (or more) quail see gaggle, host, flock or covey can be (british|slang|dated) a man.covey
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Noun
(wikipedia covey) (en noun)- The store is on a corner about which coveys of ragged-plumed, hilarious children play and become candidates for the cough drops and soothing syrups that wait for them inside.
- A covey of grey soldiers clanked down the platform at the double with their equipment and embarked, but in absolute silence, which seemed to them very singular.
Verb
(en verb)- [Tortoises] covey a whole year before they hatch.
- There is a duck called the raft duck, because it is so numerous, coveying together in "whole rafts."
References
* 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192830988Etymology 2
Noun
(en noun)- 'Pooh!' said he, 'you are as easily wounded as an unfledged dove — don't mind what an old covey like me says — I understand it all.'
- There vas an old covey as lived in Wapping, at the time I'm telling you of, who vas connected vith us by ties of common interest.
- I don't know what would become of these here young chaps, if it wasn't for such careful old coveys as we are—