dove

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various widely distributed birds of the family Columbidae, which includes the pigeons, having a small head and a characteristic cooing call.
2. n. A gentle, innocent person.
3. n. A person who advocates peace, conciliation, or negotiation in preference to confrontation or armed conflict.
4. v. A past tense of dive¹. See Usage Note at dive¹. See Regional Note at wake¹.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Any bird of the family Columbidæ; a pigeon.
2. n. The word has no more specific meaning than this, being exactly synonymous with pigeon; in popular usage it is applied most frequently to a few kinds of pigeons best known to the public, and as a book-name is commonly attached to the smaller species of pigeons: as, the ring-dove, turtle-dove, stock-dove, ground-dove, quail-dove, etc. The Carolina dove, or mourning dove, is Zenaidura carolinensis. The common doves of the old world are the ring-dove, rock-dove, stock-dove, and turtle-dove. (See these words.) In poetry, and in literature generally, the dove is an emblem of innocence, gentleness, and tender affection. In sacred literature and art it is a symbol of the Holy Ghost.
3. n. Eccles., a repository or tabernacle for the eucharist, in the form of a dove, formerly used in the East and in France.
4. n. An occasional preterit of dive.
5. To slumber; be in a state between sleeping and waking.

Wiktionary

1. n. A pigeon, especially one smaller in size.
2. n. A person favouring conciliation and negotiation rather than conflict (as opposed to hawk).
3. n. dove, a engineering reference point in a computer program that will cause some type of default action to occur.
4. v. Strong-declension simple past of s.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A pigeon of the genus Columba and various related genera. The species are numerous.
2. n. A word of endearment for one regarded as pure and gentle.
3. n. a person advocating peace, compromise or conciliation rather than war or conflict. Opposite of hawk.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. flesh of a pigeon suitable for roasting or braising; flesh of a dove (young squab) may be broiled
2. n. any of numerous small pigeons
3. n. a constellation in the southern hemisphere near Puppis and Caelum
4. n. someone who prefers negotiations to armed conflict in the conduct of foreign relations
5. n. an emblem of peace