Definition of "cove"

cove¹

/koʊv/

noun
plural coves
1. (now uncommon) A hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern.
2. (architecture) A concave vault or archway, especially the arch of a ceiling.
3. A small coastal inlet, especially one having high cliffs protecting vessels from prevailing winds.
  Quotations
  secret coves and noukes
  1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […]
4. (US) A strip of prairie extending into woodland.
5. A recess or sheltered area on the slopes of a mountain.
6. (nautical) The wooden roof of the stern gallery of an old sailing warship.
7. (nautical) A thin line, sometimes gilded, along a yacht's strake below deck level.
verb
third-person singular simple present coves, present participle coving, simple past and past participle coved
1. (architecture) To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove.
  Quotations
  The mosques and other buildings of the Arabians are rounded into domes and coved roofs.
  1779, Henry Swinburne, Travels through Spain

cove²

/koʊv/

noun
plural coves
1. (Britain, dated, informal, thieves' cant, Lewis) A fellow; a man.
  Quotations
  Don’t call Major Pendennis an old cove, if you’ll ’ave the goodness, Lightfoot, and don’t call me an old cove, nether. Such words ain’t used in society; and we have lived in the fust society, both at ’ome and foring.
  1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850
  At one point, a friendly-looking sort of cove with silver hair and a grandfatherly kind of face beamed at him […]
  2012, Terry Pratchett, Dodger, page 326
2. (Australia and Polari) A friend; a mate.

cove³

/koʊv/

verb
third-person singular simple present coves, present participle coving, simple past and past participle coved
1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) Of a bird or other animal: to brood, cover, incubate, or sit over (eggs).
  Quotations
  Moreover, the provident care of the tortoiſe in the generation, nouriſhment and preſervation of [h]er yooung, is vvoonderfull: for out ſhe goeth of the ſea, and laieth her egges or caſteth her ſpavvne upon the banke ſide; but being not able to cove or ſit upon them, nor to remaine herſelfe upon the land out of the ſea any long time, ſhe beſtovveth them in the gravell, and aftervvards covereth them vvith the lighteſt and fineſt ſand ſhe can get: […]
  1603, Plutarch, “Whether Creatures be more Wise, They of the Land, or Those of the Water”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, page 976