different between throng vs covey

English

Etymology

From Middle English throng, thrang, from Old English þrang, ?eþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangw?, *þrangw? (“throng”), from *þrangwaz (“pressing, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenk?- (“to beat; pound; hew; press”). Cognate with Dutch drang, German Drang. Compare also German Gedränge (“throng”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/
• (US) enPR: thrông, thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/, /????/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

throng (plural throngs)

1. A group of people crowded or gathered closely together.

   Synonyms: crowd, multitude

   • 1939, Ammianus Marcellinus, John Carew Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus, Volume 1, Harvard University Press, page 463:

     Here, mingled with the Persians, who were rushing to the higher ground with the same effort as ourselves, we remained motionless until sunrise of the next day, so crowded together that the bodies of the slain, held upright by the throng, could nowhere find room to fall, and that in front of me a soldier with his head cut in two, and split into equal halves by a powerful sword stroke, was so pressed on all sides that he stood erect like a stump.
2. A group of things; a host or swarm.

Translations

Verb

throng (third-person singular simple present throngs, present participle thronging, simple past and past participle thronged)

1. (transitive) To crowd into a place, especially to fill it.
2. (intransitive) To congregate.
   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act II scene i^[3]:

     […] I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and / The blind to bear him speak: […]

3. (transitive) To crowd or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings.

   • Much people followed him, and thronged him.

Related terms

• thring

Translations

Adjective

throng (comparative more throng, superlative most throng)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Filled with persons or objects; crowded.
2. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Busy; hurried.
   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, ch 59:

     Mr Shaw was very civil; he said he was rather throng just now, but if Ernest did not mind the sound of hammering he should be very glad of a talk with him.

English

Etymology 1

From Old French covee (Modern French couvée), from Latin cub? (“lie”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?v??, IPA^(key): /?k?vi/

Noun

covey (plural coveys)

1. A group of 8–12 (or more) quail.

   Coordinate terms: flock, gaggle, host

2. A brood of partridges, grouse, etc.

   • laid for by the fowler, together with their covey of young birds

3. A party or group (of persons or things).
   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 736

     A covey of grey soldiers clanked down the platform at the double with their equipment and embarked, but in absolute silence, which seemed to them very singular.

Translations

Verb

covey (third-person singular simple present coveys, present participle coveying, simple past and past participle coveyed)

1. (intransitive) To brood; to incubate.
   • Book 9

     [Tortoises] couvie a whole yeere before they hatch

References

• 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, Oxford University Press, ?ISBN

Etymology 2

cove +? -y

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??vi/
• (US) enPR: k??v?, IPA^(key): /?ko?vi/

Noun

covey (plural coveys)

1. (Britain, slang, dated) A man.

Synonyms

• bloke (UK), chap (UK), chappie (UK), cove (UK), guy, see also Thesaurus:man

Translations

Anagrams

• voyce