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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

couch a hogshead en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (UK, obsolete, qualifier:thieves' cant) To lie down to sleep.
    • I couched a hogshead in a Skypper this darkemans. 1566, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors, T. Bensley, published 1814, page 66:
    • Mayhap we have been in the same bousing ken or stalling ken at some time. Mayhap we have couched a hogshead at the same house in Southwark. 1992, Cynthia Morgan, Court of Shadows:
    • Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you. 1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
couches a hogshead Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
couched a hogshead Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
couched a hogshead Tense=Past lexicographic
couching a hogshead Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Synonyms

go to bed