Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In agriculture, the operation of clearing land from couch-grass.
- noun The act of stooping or bowing.
- noun In surgery, an operation in cases of cataract, consisting in the removal of the opaque crystalline lens out of the axis of vision by means of a needle: now rarely practised.
- noun In malting, the spreading of malt to dry after steeping. See
couch , transitive verb, 3. - noun In paper-making, the removal of the flake of pulp from the mold on which it is formed to a felt.
- noun A kind of embroidery in which silk, gold thread, or the like is laid upon the surface of the foundation instead of being drawn through it.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Med.) The operation of putting down or displacing the opaque lens in cataract.
- noun Embroidering by laying the materials upon the surface of the foundation, instead of drawing them through.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
couch . - noun medicine The
operation of putting down or displacing theopaque lens incataract . - noun textiles
Embroidering by laying the materials upon the surface of thefoundation , instead of drawing them through.
Etymologies
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Examples
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_ -- These used to be extensively practised under the name couching, and are of two kinds, -- _Depression_, where the lens is simply pushed down from its place by a needle; _Reclination_, in which it is shoved backwards (turning on its transverse axis) as well as downwards.
A Manual of the Operations of Surgery For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners Joseph Bell 1874
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This is known as couching, and is a very effective way of economizing material by displaying it all on the surface.
Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages A Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance Julia de Wolf Gibbs Addison
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Laid work might be described as couching on a more extended scale -- a given space is covered with threads taken from side to side in parallel lines close together, fixed at either extremity by entering the material.
Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving Grace Christie
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All drapery carried out in this stitch is worked in somewhat the same fashion, that is, the couching running to and fro between the lines marks each fold as roughly shown at fig. 131.
Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving Grace Christie
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In no case is much mixing of methods to be desired; but if appliqué is to be supplemented, it had best be with couching, which is not so much stitching as stitched down, itself another form of applied work.
Art in Needlework A Book about Embroidery Mary Buckle 1877
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Elsewhere it is kept in place by "couching," a process presently to be described.
Art in Needlework A Book about Embroidery Mary Buckle 1877
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...'couching' & the end of summer might be a better, more appropriate title for some of us...
So What Now? Coaching and the End of Summer BikeSnobNYC 2008
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I just object to the couching of an obvious pitch in prose that would suggest an earnest interest in the welfare of others.
Herd Mentality As it Applies to Real Estate in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 2009
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They are couching their sales pitch around women's wellness and selling women a purported fountain of youth, while trashing Wyeth for doing the same thing with Prempro.
Seven Things To Know About Hormones - My Take aka TBTAM 2009
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It was a, "Well, I don't know if this is going to do any good, but it sure feels better to be out there singing about it, saying something, and not couching things in a bunch of metaphors."
Mike Ragogna: Scars On 45's New Video and Download, Plus Chatting with Vanessa Carlton, Dan Bern and David Bromberg Mike Ragogna 2011
reesetee commented on the word couching
A method of embroidering: a thread is laid on the surface of a material, then is caught down at intervals by stitches taken with another thread through the material.
March 30, 2007