couple

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old French couple, from Latin copula.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

couple (plural couples)

  1. Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
    • 1729, Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal:
      I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; […]
  2. Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
    • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:
      […] couple of tables; one of which bore some preparations for supper; while, on the other […]
  3. (informal) A small number.
    • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:
      A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle […]
    • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League
      ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’
    • 1902, A. Henry Savage Landor, Across Coveted Lands:
      When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore […]
  4. One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
  5. (physics) Two forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction (and acting along parallel lines), thus creating the turning effect of a torque or moment.

Usage notes [edit]

  • The traditional and still most broadly accepted usage of couple is as a noun, in which case it is followed by "of" when used to mean "two", as in "a couple of people". In this usage, "a couple of" is equivalent to "a pair of". Couple is also used informally as a determiner (see definition below), in which case it is not followed by "of". In this usage, "a couple" is roughly equivalent to "a few". Usage manuals advise that couple be used only as a noun and not as a determiner in formal writing.
  • "A couple of things" or people may be used to mean two of them, but it is also often used to mean any small number.
    The farm is a couple of miles off the main highway [=a few miles away].
    We’re going out to a restaurant with a couple of friends [=two friends].
    Wait a couple of minutes [=two minutes or more].

Synonyms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

two partners
two of the same kind considered together
a small number of
one of the pair of plates in a voltaic battery
two rotations, movements, etc., equal in amount but opposite in direction
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Determiner [edit]

couple

  1. (informal) A small number of.

Verb [edit]

couple (third-person singular simple present couples, present participle coupling, simple past and past participle coupled)

  1. (transitive) To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
    Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
    I've coupled our system to theirs.
  2. (transitive, dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
  3. (intransitive) To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
    • 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
      On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
    • 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
      She had the brilliant inventor and craftsman Daedalus construct her an artificial cow, in which she hid and induced the bull to couple with her [...]

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

to join together

French [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old French couple, from Latin copula.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

couple m (plural couples)

  1. two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship
    Jean et Amélie forment un joli couple. - Jean and Amélie make a cute couple
  2. (physics) a force couple; a pure moment
  3. (mathematics) an ordered pair

Noun [edit]

couple f (plural couples)

  1. (animal husbandry) An accessory used to tightly attach two animals next to each other by the neck.
  2. (regional) a pair of something.
  3. (Canada) a couple of something, not to be mistaken as a few.

Related terms [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Old French [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Latin copula.

Noun [edit]

couple f (oblique plural couples, nominative singular couple, nominative plural couples)

  1. couple (two things)
  2. sexual liaison

Usage notes [edit]

  • Occasionally used as a masculine noun (le couple)

Descendants [edit]

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