different between lying vs couchant

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?la?.??/
• Hyphenation: ly?ing

Etymology 1

lie (“to rest in a horizontal position”) +? -ing.

Verb

lying

1. present participle of lie (“to rest in a horizontal position”).

Noun

lying (plural lyings)

1. The act of one who lies, or keeps low to the ground.
   • 1854, Saint Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXIV, translated by Philip Schaff et al.

     But whom could the lyings in wait of the human heart escape?

Derived terms

• low-lying
• high-lying

Translations

Etymology 2

lie (“to intentionally give false information”) +? -ing.

Verb

lying

1. present participle of lie (“to intentionally give false information”).

Noun

lying (plural lyings)

1. An act of telling a lie or falsehood.
   • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, Twenty-five Sermons preached at Golden Grove; being for the Winter Half-year, "Apples of Sodom"

     […] he must do it by false propositions, by lyings, and such weak discourses as none can believe but such as are born fools […]

Translations

Adjective

lying (not generally comparable, comparative more lying or lyinger, superlative most lying or lyingest)

1. Tending to tell lies, untruthful, mendacious
   • Shakespeare, The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth, Act 2 scene 1:

   • Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Induction scene 2:

Further reading

• lie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• lingy

English

Etymology

From Middle English couchant, from Middle French couchant.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ka?t??nt/

Adjective

couchant (not comparable)

1. (of an animal) Lying with belly down and front legs extended; crouching.
   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     The dogs, with eager yelp,
     Are struggling to be free;
     The hawks in frequent stoop
     Token their haste for flight;
     And couchant on the saddle-bow,
     With tranquil eyes, and talons sheath’d,
     The ounce expects his liberty.

   • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter I. "The Shipwreck", page 14.

     There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.

   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, XX

     Two figures faced each other, large, austere;

     A couchant sphinx in shadow to the breast,

     An angel standing in the moonlight clear;

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Vintage Classics, paperback edition, page 91

     Or again, have you ever watched fine collie dogs couchant at twenty yards' distance?

2. (heraldry) Represented as crouching with the head raised.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.2:

     His crest was covered with a couchant Hownd, / And all his armour seem'd of antique mould [...].

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.???/

Noun

couchant m (plural couchants)

1. the setting sun
2. the sunset
3. the west
4. (literary) old age, decline, termination

Verb

couchant

1. present participle of coucher

Middle English

Alternative forms

• cowchaunte

Etymology

From Middle French couchant, from Old French couchant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ku?t?ant/

Noun

couchant

1. (rare) Lying down; couchant.
2. (rare) Displaying deference and humility.

Descendants

• English: couchant

References

• “c?uchant, ppl.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-20.

Middle French

Verb

couchant (feminine singular couchante, masculine plural couchans, feminine plural couchantes)

1. present participle of coucher
2. (may be preceded by en, invariable) gerund of coucher

Adjective

couchant m (feminine singular couchante, masculine plural couchans, feminine plural couchantes)

1. lying down

Old French

Verb

couchant

1. present participle of couchier

Adjective

couchant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular couchant)

1. lying down