couch

See also Couch

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: kouch, IPA: /kaʊtʃ/, X-SAMPA: /kaUtS/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊtʃ

Etymology 1

From Old French couche.

Noun

couch (plural couches)

1. An item of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person.
2. Bed, resting-place.
   • For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.
   • Shakespeare

     Gentle sleep […] why liest thou with the vile / In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch?

   • Bryant

     Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch / About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

3. A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.

   couch of malt

4. (art, painting and gilding) A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.

Synonyms

• (item of furniture): davenport, divan, settee, sofa

Derived terms

• couch surfing
• uncouched

Descendants

• German: Couch

Translations

furniture for seating

• Albanian: divan (sq)
• Arabic: فراش (ar) (firāš) m, أريكة (ar) (arīka) f, مضجع (ar) (máḍjaʿ) m

  Egyptian Arabic: كنبة (kánaba) f

• Armenian: բազմոց (hy) (bazmoc') 
• Bulgarian: диван (bg) m (divan), кушетка (bg) f (kušetka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 沙發 (cmn), 沙发 (cmn) (shāfā), 長沙發椅 (cmn), 长沙发椅 (cmn) (cháng shāfāyǐ)

• Czech: pohovka (cs) f, gauč (cs) m
• Danish: sofa (da), briks (da), leje (da)
• Dutch: sofa (nl)
• Estonian: diivan (et)
• Finnish: sohva (fi), leposohva (fi)
• French: sofa (fr) m, canapé (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Sofa (de) n, Couch (de) f
• Hebrew: סַפָּה (he) (sapa)
• Hungarian: kanapé (hu)

• Icelandic: sófi (is)
• Irish: tolg (ga) m
• Italian: canapè (it) m, divano (it) m, sofà (it) m
• Japanese: カウチ (ja) (kauchi), ソファー (ja) (sofā), 寝台 (ja) (しんだい, shindai)
• Jèrriais: longue tchaîse f
• Latin: cubīle (la) n, lectus (la) m, sponda (la) f
• Maltese: sufan (mt)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sofa (nb) m

  Nynorsk: sofa (nn) m

• Portuguese: sofá (pt) m
• Russian: диван (ru) (diván) m , кушетка (ru) (kušétka) f , тахта (ru) (taxtá) f , софа (ru) (sofá) f 
• Scottish Gaelic: langasaid (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian: ležaj (sh) m, kauč (sh)
• Spanish: sofá (es) m, sillón (es) m
• Turkish: kanepe (tr)
• Vietnamese: đi văng (vi)

See also

• armchair
• love seat
• chesterfield

Verb

couch (third-person singular simple present couches, present participle couching, simple past and past participle couched)

1. To lie down; to recline (upon a couch).

Synonyms

• (lie down (on a couch)): lie down, recline

Translations

lie down (on a couch)

• Bulgarian: лежа (bg) (leža), полягам (bg) (poljagam)
• Danish: lægge (da) sig

• French: (sur un sofa or sur un canapé) s'allonger (fr)
• Italian: (su un divano or su un sofa) sdraiarsi (it)

Etymology 2

From Old French couchier

Verb

couch (third-person singular simple present couches, present participle couching, simple past and past participle couched)

1. To phrase in a particular style, to use specific wording.

   He couched it as a request, but it was an order.

   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, The Onion AV Club:

     More significantly, rigid deference to Bieber’s still-young core fan base keeps things resolutely PG, with any acknowledgement of sex either couched in vague “touch your body” workarounds or downgraded to desirous hand-holding and eye-gazing.

2. (archaic) To conceal; to hide
   • 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Dialogue 2:

     You have overlooked a fallacy couched in the experiment of the stick.

Synonyms

• (phrase in a particular style): explain, express, phrase, term, word

Translations

phrase in a particular style

• Bulgarian: излагам (bg) (izlagam), формулирам (bg) (formuliram)
• Danish: affatte (da), udtrykke (da)
• Hungarian: megfogalmaz (hu)
• Polish: ubierać w słowa (pl), redagować (pl), zredagować (pl)

• Portuguese: escrever (pt), estilizar (pt)
• Russian: формулировать (ru) (formulírovatʼ) n  impf., выражать (ru) (vyražát’) n 

Etymology 3

From quitch, from Old English cwice, from Middle Low German kweke.

Noun

couch (uncountable)

1. couch grass, a species of persistent grass, Elymus repens, usually considered a weed.

Synonyms

• (Elymus repens): twitch, quick grass, quitch grass, quitch, dog grass, quackgrass, scutch grass, witchgrass

Translations

• German: Kriech-Quecke (de) f

See also

• Elymus repens on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Elymus repens