dove

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“
This dove is a picture of the holy prophets sent to teach the people; but the flood, that is, the time of the Law, had not yet passed away.

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun Any of various widely distributed birds of the family Columbidae, which includes the pigeons, having a small head and a characteristic cooing call.
  2. noun A gentle, innocent person.
  3. noun A person who advocates peace, conciliation, or negotiation in preference to confrontation or armed conflict.
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Examples (50)

  • This dove was a resident with us all the year round, but occasionally in spring and autumn they were to be seen travelling in immense flocks, and these were evidently strangers in the land and came from some sub-tropical country in the north where they bad no fear of the human form. —  Far Away And Long Ago
  • The stained glass window depicting the dove is also positioned directly above the church's altar. —  news | TL | http://www.tuscaloosanews.com
  • My guess is that the dove is there to give Him strength and courage in His time of need. —  starwars.com Blogs
  • Hence the lamb and the dove are his appropriate symbols He was, indeed, tempted as we are, but he never yielded to temptation. —  The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy
  • Then all the archbishops and bishops were summoned, and the dove was again let loose, but it did not settle on any one. —  Italian Popular Tales
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English douve, from Old English *dūfe.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. = Scots doo, dow, from Middle English dove, douve, dowve, duve, from Anglo-Saxon *dūfe = Old Saxon dūbha = Dutch duif = Low German duve = Old High German tūba, Middle High German toube, German taube = Icelandic dūfa = Swedish dufva = Danish due = Goth, dūbō, a dove, literally a diver, from Anglo-Saxon dūfan, etc., English dive, dip. The application of the name to the bird is not clear (perhaps “from its habit of ducking the head, or from its manner of flight”). The Anglo-Saxon form *dūfe is not recorded (but cf. dūfe-doppa, translating L. pelicanus: see under divedapper, didapper), the name culfre, English culver1, q. v., being used; this is prob. ult. from Latin columba, a dove, which also orig. means a ‘diver’: see columba'l.
  2. English dial., apparently ult. from an unrecorded Anglo-Saxon verb, the source of the verbal noun Anglo-Saxon dofung, dotage; cf. English dial. freq. dover, also doven, the latter perhaps from Icelandic dofna, become dead or heavy (cf. dofi, torpor), = Swedish domna, become numb, dofna, numb; cf. Danish döve, blunt, bedöve, stun, stupefy, from the same root as deaf, q. v. Cf. dowf.
 

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/doʊv/
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