In 1511, leaders in Mecca believed coffee stimulated radical thinking and outlawed the drink. In 1524, the leaders overturned that order, and people could drink coffee again.
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
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
11 February 2025
ALEWIFE
(noun) shad-like food fish that runs rivers to spawn; often salted or smoked; sometimes placed in genus Pomolobus
Coffee Trivia
