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Hove vs Cove - What's the difference?

hove | cove |

As a verb hove

is to remain suspended in air, water etc; to float, to hover or hove can be (transitive|now|chiefly|dialectal) to raise; lift; hold up or hove can be (nautical) (heave).

As a proper noun cove is

a town in arkansas.

hove

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) . More at (l).

Alternative forms

* (l), (l), (l) (Scotland)

Verb

(hov)
  • To remain suspended in air, water etc.; to float, to hover.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.7:
  • *:As shee arrived on the roring shore, / In minde to leape into the mighty maine, / A little bote lay hoving her before.
  • To wait, linger.
  • *:
    • Alle these xv knyghtes were knyghtes of the table round / Soo these with moo other came in to gyders / and bete on bak the kynge of Northumberland and the kynge of Northwalys / whan sir launcelot sawe this as he houed in a lytil leued woode / thenne he sayd vnto syre lauayn / see yonder is a company of good knyghtes
  • To move (on) or (by).
  • To remain; delay.
  • To remain stationary (usually on horseback).

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) hoven, alteration (due to hove, hoven, past tense and past participle of ). More at (l).

    Verb

    (hov)
  • (transitive, now, chiefly, dialectal) To raise; lift; hold up.
  • (intransitive, now, chiefly, dialectal) To rise.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
    • Astond he stood, and vp his haire did houe , / And with that suddein horror could no member moue.

    Etymology 3

    Inflected forms.

    Verb

    (head)
  • (nautical) (heave)
  • (obsolete, or, dialectal) (heave)
  • * 1884 , (Mark Twain), (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Chapter VIII:
    • Pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself and hove off the blanket, and it was Miss Watson's Jim! I bet I was glad to see him.
    Synonyms
    * heaved English irregular simple past forms

    cove

    English

    (wikipedia cove)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) cofa, from (etyl) . Cognate with German Koben, Swedish kofva. This word has probably survived as long as it has due to its coincidental phonetic resemblence to the unrelated word "cave".

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (architecture) A concave vault or archway, especially the arch of a ceiling.
  • A small coastal inlet, especially one having high cliffs protecting vessels from prevailing winds.
  • * Holland
    • vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks
  • (US) A strip of prairie extending into woodland.
  • A recess or sheltered area on the slopes of a mountain.
  • (nautical) The wooden roof of the stern gallery of an old sailing warship.
  • (nautical) A thin line, sometimes gilded, along a yacht's strake below deck level.

    • Verb

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

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Perhaps change in consonants due to lower class th-fronting.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (British) A fellow; a man.
  • (Australia) A friend; a mate.
    • Derived terms
    * Abram cove * badge-cove * bang up cove

    Etymology 3

    Compare (etyl) couver, (etyl) covare. See covey.

    Verb

    (cov)
  • To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs.
  • * Holland
    • Not being able to cove or sit upon them [eggs], she [the female tortoise] bestoweth them in the gravel.
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