COVING

Etymology

Noun

coving (plural covings)

A concave surface forming a junction between a ceiling and a wall.

The vertical sides connecting the jambs with the breast of a fireplace.

Source: Wiktionary

Cov"ing, n. (Arch.) (a) A cove or series of coves, as the concaved surface under the overhang of a projecting upper story. (b) The splayed jambs of a flaring fireplace.

COVE

Cove (kv), n. Etym: [AS. cofa room; akin to G. koben pigsty, orig., hut, Icel kofi hut, and perh. to E. cobalt.]

1. A retired nook; especially, a small, sheltered inlet, creek, or bay; a recess in the shore. Vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks. Holland.

2. A strip of prairie extending into woodland; also, a recess in the side of a mountain. [U.S.]

3. (Arch.) (a) A concave molding. (b) A member, whose section is a concave curve, used especially with regard to an inner roof or ceiling, as around a skylight.

Cove, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Coved (kvd); p. pr. & vb. n. Coving.] (Arch.)

Definition: To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove. The mosques and other buildings of the Arabians are rounded into domes and coved roofs. H. Swinburne. Coved ceiling, a ceiling, the part of which next the wail is constructed in a cove.

– Coved vault, a vault composed of four coves meeting in a central point, and therefore the reverse of a groined vault.

Cove, v. t. Etym: [CF. F. couver, It. covare. See Covey.]

Definition: To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs. [Obs.] Not being able to cove or sit upon them [eggs], she [the female tortoise] bestoweth them in the gravel. Holland.

Cove, n. Etym: [A gypsy word, covo that man, covi that woman.]

Definition: A boy or man of any age or station. [Slang] There's a gentry cove here. Wit's Recreations (1654). Now, look to it, coves, that all the beef and drink Be not filched from us. Mrs. Browning.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition