Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A family or small flock of birds, especially partridge or quail.
  • noun A small group, as of persons.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as cove.
  • noun In hunting, specifically, a flock of partridges; hence, in general use, a flock of any similar birds.
  • noun A company; a party; a bevy.
  • noun Synonyms Pack, Brood, etc. See flock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To brood; to incubate.
  • noun A brood or hatch of birds; an old bird with her brood of young; hence, a small flock or number of birds together; -- said of game.
  • noun A company; a bevy.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A pantry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, slang A man.
  • noun A group of 8-12 (or more) quail. See gaggle, host, flock.
  • noun A brood of partridges, grouse, etc.
  • noun A party or group (of persons or things).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small flock of grouse or partridge
  • noun a small collection of people

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French covee, brood, from feminine past participle of cover, to incubate, from Latin cubāre, to lie down.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cove +‎ -y

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French covee (Modern French couvée), from Latin cubō ("lie").

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Examples

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  • Citation on arroyo.

    August 26, 2008