Adjacent Words

Couple definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COUPLE, n. [L. G.]
1. Two of the same species or kind, and near in place, or considered together; as a couple of men; a couple or oranges. I have planted a couple of cherry trees. We cannot call a horse and an ox a couple, unless we add a generic term. Of a horse and ox feeding in a pasture, we should say, a couple of animals. Among huntsmen and soldiers, brace is used for couple; as a brace of ducks; a brace or pistols. Couple differs from pair, which implies strictly not only things of the same kind, but likeness, equality or customary association. A pair is a couple; but a couple may or may not be a pair.
2. Two things of any kind connected or linked together.
3. A male and female connected by marriage, betrothed or allied; as a married couple; a young couple.
4. That which links or connects two things together; a chain.
COUPLE, v.t.
1. To link, chain or connect one thing with another; to sew or fasten together.
Thou shalt couple the curtains with taches. Exodus 26.
2. To marry; to wed; to unite, as husband and wife.
COUPLE, v.i. To embrace, as the sexes.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a pair who associate with one another; "the engaged couple"; "an inseparable twosome" [syn: couple, twosome, duo, duet]
2: a pair of people who live together; "a married couple from Chicago" [syn: couple, mates, match]
3: a small indefinite number; "he's coming for a couple of days"
4: two items of the same kind [syn: couple, pair, twosome, twain, brace, span, yoke, couplet, distich, duo, duet, dyad, duad]
5: (physics) something joined by two equal and opposite forces that act along parallel lines v
1: bring two objects, ideas, or people together; "This fact is coupled to the other one"; "Matchmaker, can you match my daughter with a nice young man?"; "The student was paired with a partner for collaboration on the project" [syn: match, mate, couple, pair, twin]
2: link together; "can we couple these proposals?" [syn: couple, couple on, couple up] [ant: decouple, uncouple]
3: form a pair or pairs; "The two old friends paired off" [syn: pair, pair off, partner off, couple]
4: engage in sexual intercourse; "Birds mate in the Spring" [syn: copulate, mate, pair, couple]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, pair, bond, from Anglo-French cuple, from Latin copula bond, from co- + apere to fasten — more at apt Date: 13th century 1. a. two persons married, engaged, or otherwise romantically paired b. two persons paired together 2. pair, brace 3. something that joins or links two things together: as a. two equal and opposite forces that act along parallel lines b. a pair of substances that in contact with an electrolyte participate in a transfer of electrons which causes an electric current to flow 4. an indefinite small number ; few <a couple of days ago> • coupledom noun II. verb (coupled; coupling) Date: 13th century transitive verb 1. a. to connect for consideration together b. to join for combined effect 2. a. to fasten together ; link b. to bring (two electric circuits) into such close proximity as to permit mutual influence 3. to join in marriage or sexual union intransitive verb 1. to unite in sexual union 2. join 3. to unite chemically III. adjective Date: 1924 two; also few — used with a <a couple drinks> Usage: The adjective use of a couple, without of, has been called nonstandard, but it is not. In both British and American English it is standard before a word (as more or less) indicating degree <a couple more examples of Middle English writing — Charles Barber>. Its use before an ordinary plural noun is an Americanism, common in speech and in writing that is not meant to be formal or elevated <the first couple chapters are pretty good — E. B. White (letter)> <still operated a couple wagons for hire — Garrison Keillor>. It is most frequently used with periods of time <a couple weeks> and numbers <a couple hundred> <a couple dozen>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 (usu. foll. by of; often as sing.) a two (a couple of girls). b about two (a couple of hours). 2 (often as sing.) a a married or engaged pair. b a pair of partners in a dance, a game, etc. c a pair of rafters. 3 (pl. couple) a pair of hunting dogs (six couple of hounds). 4 (in pl.) a pair of joined collars used for holding hounds together. 5 Mech. a pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions, and tending to cause rotation about an axis perpendicular to the plane containing them. --v. 1 tr. fasten or link together; connect (esp. railway carriages). 2 tr. (often foll. by together, with) associate in thought or speech (papers coupled their names; couple our congratulations with our best wishes). 3 intr. copulate. 4 tr. Physics connect (oscillators) with a coupling. Etymology: ME f. OF cople, cuple, copler, cupler f. L copulare, L COPULA

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Couple Cou"ple, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Coupled (k?p"'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Coupling (-l?ng).] [F. coupler, fr. L. copulare. See Couple, n., and cf. Copulate, Cobble, v.] 1. To link or tie, as one thing to another; to connect or fasten together; to join. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds, . . . And couple Clowder with the deep-mouthed brach. --Shak. 2. To join in wedlock; to marry. [Colloq.] A parson who couples all our beggars. --Swift.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Couple Cou"ple (k?p"'l), n. [F. couple, fr. L. copula a bond, band; co- + apere, aptum, to join. See Art, a., and cf. Copula.] 1. That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler. [Obs.] It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples; they should be of the same size and humor. --L'Estrange. I'll go in couples with her. --Shak. 2. Two of the same kind connected or considered together; a pair; a brace. ``A couple of shepherds.'' --Sir P. Sidney. ``A couple of drops'' --Addison. ``A couple of miles.'' --Dickens. ``A couple of weeks.'' --Carlyle. Adding one to one we have the complex idea of a couple. --Locke. [Ziba] met him with a couple of asses saddled. --2 Sam. xvi. 1. 3. A male and female associated together; esp., a man and woman who are married or betrothed. Such were our couple, man and wife. --Lloyd. Fair couple linked in happy, nuptial league. --Milton. 4. (Arch.) See Couple-close. 5. (Elec.) One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery; -- called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple. 6. (Mech.) Two rotations, movements, etc., which are equal in amount but opposite in direction, and acting along parallel lines or around parallel axes. Note: The effect of a couple of forces is to produce a rotation. A couple of rotations is equivalent to a motion of translation.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Couple Cou"ple, v. i. To come together as male and female; to copulate. [Obs.] --Milton. Bacon.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(couples, coupling, coupled) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If you refer to a couple of people or things, you mean two or approximately two of them, although the exact number is not important or you are not sure of it. Across the street from me there are a couple of police officers standing guard... I think the trouble will clear up in a couple of days. ...a small working-class town in Massachusetts, a couple of hundred miles from New York City. QUANT: QUANT of pl-n • Couple is also a determiner in spoken American English, and before 'more' and 'less'. ...a couple weeks before the election... I think I can play maybe for a couple more years. DET • Couple is also a pronoun. I've got a couple that don't look too bad. PRON 2. A couple is two people who are married, living together, or having a sexual relationship. The couple have no children. ...after burglars ransacked an elderly couple's home. N-COUNT-COLL 3. A couple is two people that you see together on a particular occasion or that have some association. ...as the four couples began the opening dance... N-COUNT-COLL 4. If you say that one thing produces a particular effect when it is coupled with another, you mean that the two things combine to produce that effect. ...a problem that is coupled with lower demand for the machines themselves... Over-use of those drugs, coupled with poor diet, leads to physical degeneration... = combine VERB: usu passive, be V-ed with n, V-ed 5. If one piece of equipment is coupled to another, it is joined to it so that the two pieces of equipment work together. Its engine is coupled to a semiautomatic gearbox... The various systems are coupled together in complex arrays. VERB: usu passive, be V-ed to n, be V-ed together 6. see also coupling

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kup'-l:

(1) Used as a noun, indicates two objects of the same kind that are considered together. Thus we read of a couple of cakes (2Sa 13:6, used loosely), and a couple of asses (2Sa 16:1, Hebrew tsemedh).

(2) Used as a verb, it means to join or fasten one thing to another. This term occurs most frequently in the description of the tabernacle (see Ex 26:6,9,11; 36:10,13,16). Couple is used in 1Pe 3:2 to describe the joining of fear to chaste behavior (Hebrew chabhar) .

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Brace, pair, two (of the same kind). 2. Man and wife, married pair. 3. Link, bond, tie, coupling, leash. II. v. a. 1. Join, conjoin, connect, unite, pair, link together. 2. Marry, wed. III. v. n. 1. Unite, pair. 2. Copulate, embrace.

Moby Thesaurus

a few, accouple, accumulate, affiliate, agglutinate, ally, amass, apply, arrange a match, articulate, assemble, associate, ball, band, band together, be in cahoots, be intimate, be made one, be spliced, become one, bind, bond, both, brace, bracket, bridge, bridge over, bunch, bunch up, cabal, cement, cement a union, centralize, chain, clap together, clot, club, club together, cluster, coalesce, cohabit, collect, combine, come together, commit adultery, comprise, concatenate, confederate, conglobulate, congregate, conjoin, conjugate, connect, consociate, conspire, contract matrimony, converge, copulate, correlate, couple up, couplet, cover, crowd, date, diddle, distich, double harness, double-harness, double-team, doublet, draw a parallel, duad, duet, duo, dyad, embrace, encompass, equate, espouse, federalize, federate, flock together, flow together, forgather, fornicate, frig, fuse, gang, gang around, gang up, gather, gather around, get hitched, give away, glue, go in partners, go in partnership, group, harness, have sex, have sexual relations, herd together, hitch, hive, hook up, hook up with, horde, huddle, identify, include, intermarry, interrelate, interwed, join, join forces, join fortunes with, join together, join up with, join with, knot, lay, lay together, league, lie with, link, look-alikes, lump together, make a match, make it with, make love, make one, make out, marry, marshal, mass, match, matching pair, mate, mates, meet, merge, mill, miscegenate, mobilize, mount, muster, nuptial, one or two, organize, pair, pair off, parallel, parallelize, partner, piece together, put together, rally, rally around, relate, relativize, remarry, rendezvous, rewed, roll into one, screw, seethe, serve, service, set, set of two, several, sleep with, solder, span, splice, stand together, stand up with, stick together, stream, surge, swarm, take in, take to wife, tape, team, team up, team up with, team with, the two, throng, throw in with, tie, tie in with, tie up with, twain, twins, two, twosome, unify, unionize, unite, unite in marriage, unite with, wed, weld, wive, yoke