Forms: 4 coppell, 4–5 cuple, copul(l, coupel, 4–6 coupil(l, -yl(l, cople, copple, 4–7 cupple, 5 coupull, cowp-, cwpylle, cuppil, -ylle, 5–6 copol, -il(l, -yl(l, cowple, 6 coople, 4– couple. [a. OF. cople, cuple, later couple:—L. cōpula band, tie, connection: see COPULA.]
I. That which unites two.
1. A brace or leash for holding two hounds together. Usually in pl.; also a pair of couples.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1147. Couples huntes of kest [= hunters cast off couples].
1483. Cath. Angl., 86. A Cwpylle of hundys, copula.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, E v b. When he has of cast his cowples at will.
1602. Return fr. Parnass., II. v. (Arb.), 32. Another company of houndes … had their couples cast off.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1345/4. Strayed … a red pied Fox Beagle Bitch … with a pair of Couples about her neck.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Progr. Taste, II. 10. Oh days! when to a girdle ty’d, The couples gingled at his side.
1781. P. Beckford, Hunting (1802), 81–2. Care should be taken that the couples be not too loose, lest they should slip their necks out of the collar.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxiv. Hounds yelled in their couples.
fig. 1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II. 66. In pursuit of a husband who will run away from the couple.
b. transf. and fig. To go, hunt, run in couples.
Here the original meaning is often forgotten, and couples used with the sense of pairs, twos.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., I. i. B 3. S’death, you perpetuall Curres, Fall to your couples, againe, and cossen kindly.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., II. i. 135. Ile keepe my Stables where I lodge my Wife, Ile goe in couples with her.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., II. 19, note. None of them [the nerves] single, but runne in couples.
1644–7. Cleveland, Char. Lond. Diurn., 4. They hunt in their Couples, what one doth at the head, the other scores up at the heele.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. iv. 39. I Couple them together, because (like Blood-hounds) they usually hunt (in couples) together, (Avarice and Ambition) that’s their Name.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Dancing Acad., ix. And when he had been sufficiently broken in in the parlour he began to run in couples in the Assembly-room.
2. transf. † a. A connection between two parts of the body; ? a ligament. Obs.
1535. Coverdale, Col. ii. 19. The heade wherof the whole body by ioyntes and couples receaueth norishment and is knyt together.
† b. Gram. A connecting word or particle; a copula. Obs.
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 161. The Verbe (in the common language of the Schooles) is called the band, or couple.
1711. J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 152. It is called the Subjunctive Mood because it is subjoin’d or added to the first Sentence by some Cople or Tye.
† 3. Union or coupling in matrimony; the bond of wedlock; sexual union. Obs.
c. 1320. Orpheo, 422, in Ritson, Metr. Rom., II. 265. A foule couple it were forthy To lete hur com in thy company.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 180. Hit is an vn-comely couple … To ȝeuen a ȝong wenche to an old feble Mon.
c. 1450. Myrc, 194. Wyth-owten cowpulle or fleschly dede.
a. 1553. Ld. Berners, Huon, clxii. 631. It were a mete copyll of vs twayne to be ioyned together in maryage.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 442. To be begotten in the honest and chast couple of marriage.
II. A union of two; a pair.
The plural after a numeral is often couple, esp. when followed by of with the names of animals or things.
4. A brace of dogs used for hunting, esp. harriers or spaniels; also, a brace of conies or rabbits.
c. 1430–50. Two Cookery-bks., CC. copull Conyngges.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, X. xiii. 434. A noyse as hit hadde ben a thyrtty couple of houndes.
1527. W. Capon, in Fiddes, Wolsey, II. (1726), 104. He gave to us 6 cowple of conyes.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. xiv. (1660), 167. Skilfull Forresters … Do use to say, a couple of Rabbets or Conies.
1636. W. Denny, in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 14. Then throw they in their Couples, and one cry Of many Parkes do ring about the Skie.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Couple, in respect to Conies and Rabbets, the proper Term for two of them; so it is for two Hounds.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., I. i. 19. Two spaniels or harriers were called a couple.
5. A man and woman united by love or marriage; a wedded or engaged pair.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10168 (Cott.). To wijf he has dame anna tan,—Was suilk a cuple [v.r. coupil, couple] neuer nan.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIX. 224. The bible bereþ witnesse … Þat a-corsed alle couples þat no kynde forth brouhte.
1436. E. E. Wills (1882), 107. Euery couple of man & wyf dwellyng at Ochecote.
1545. Brinklow, Compl., 44 b. .iij. pownd of euery hundreth, to be bestowyd vpon poore copyls at their maryages.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 40. I must Bestow vpon the eyes of this yong couple Some vanity of mine Art.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 339. Fair couple, linkt in happie nuptial League.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 254, ¶ 3. A very loving Couple.
1753. Scots Mag., XV. Aug., 422/2. The happy couple who got the Dunmow bacon in 1751.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Uses of Gt. Men, Wks. (Bohn), I. 284. It is observed in old couples … who have been housemates for a course of years, that they grow alike.
1875. Mrs. Randolph, Wild Hyacinth, I. 43. Sir Loudoun would give up Glen Ettrick at once to the young couple.
b. A man and woman associated as partners in a dance or the like.
1759. Compl. Lett.-writer (ed. 6), 226. I stood two couple above her.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. viii. A merry country-dance was going on … and new couples joined in every minute.
c. 1875. Routledge’s Ball-room Guide, 31. The Lancers must be danced by four couples only in each set.
6. Of animals: a. A pair of opposite sexes.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 333. Of vche best þat berez lyf busk þe a cupple.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 169. Alle schulen dye for his dedes … Out-taken Eihte soules, and of vche beest a couple.
b. Farming. A ewe and her lamb; double couple, a ewe with two lambs.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb., Gloss. (E. D. S.), Couples, ewes and lambs.
1855. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XVI. II. 295. 200 ewes with their lambs, generally here [Bucks.] called ‘couples.’
1882. Somerset Gaz., 18 March. 9 single couples and 1 double ditto of ewes and lambs.
7. gen. Two individuals (persons, animals or things) of the same sort taken together; properly used of such as are paired or associated by some common function or relation; but often loosely, as a mere synonym for two. Cf. pair. † Couple of corn: app. two quarters.
All shades of gradation connect the strict sense (as in 1541) with the loosest (as in 1711).
1365. Durh. Halmote Rolls (Surtees), 42. Ad emendum ij coppell’ de silles cum les pannes.
c. 1400. Beryn, 2002. Þer & þer a coupill gon to speke & eke to roune.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 68. Tho gaf I hym acopel of maynchettis with swete butter.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vj a. A Couple or a payer of botillis.
1526. Act 28 Hen. VIII., in Stat. Irel. (1621), 77. After the rate of fifteene shillings the couple of corne.
1535. Coverdale, Judith xix. 3. A seruaunt and a couple of asses.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. Howe many cowples of sensityfé synewes come fro the brayne.
1570. Ascham, Scholem., Pref. to Rdr. (Arb.), 20. Though they three do cost me a couple of hundred poundes by yeare.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. v. 34. A couple of as arrant knaues as any in Messina.
1611. Bible, 2 Sam. xiii. 6. Make me a couple of cakes in my sight.
1638. Brome, Antipodes, IV. viii. These persons passe over the Stage in Couples.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 8, ¶ 1. I shall here communicate to the World a couple of letters.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., vii. 194. We spent a couple of hours resting and exploring the ruins.
1885. Law Times, LXXX. 111/1. The rule … has existed for at least a couple of centuries.
8. One of a pair of inclined rafters or beams, that meet at the top and are fixed at the bottom by a tie, and form the principal support of a roof; a principal rafter, a chevron.
[Cf. c. 600. Isidore, Orig., XIX. xix. 6 Cuplæ [v.r. coplæ, complæ] vocatæ, quod copulent in se luctantes.]
1364. Durh. Halm. Rolls (Surtees), 31. j domum sufficientem de iij copuls.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1328. Al þe coples cipres were & þe raftres wer al-so.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IX. vi. 163. Twenty cuppil he gave or ma, to þe body of þe kirk alsua.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 75. An house is neuer made perfecte, till these coples be put vpon it, by the maner of an heade.
1659. Willsford, Scales Comm., Archit., 12. At every joynt a collar-beam, fastned at their heads with a pin onely; these last by some are called the Arch-couples.
1796. Statist. Acc. Scotl., XVII. 140 (Jam.). The oak couples were of a circular form, lined with wood.
1868. G. Macdonald, R. Falconer, I. 97. The other [room] … showing the naked couples from roof-tree to floor.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v., A ‘half-couple’ is a single main timber, such as would be used in a ‘lean-to’ roof.
† 9. = COUPLET 1. Obs. rare.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 102. Sir Tristrem; ouer gestes it has þe steem … if men it sayd as made Thomas; But I here it no man so say, Þat of som copple som is away.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., xxxiii. All the gardyng and the wallis rong Ryght of thaire song, and on the copill next Off thaire suete armony.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. x. (Arb.), 99. By distick or couples of verses agreeing in one cadence.
10. Dynamics. A pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions, tending to produce a motion of rotation.
1855. B. Peirce, Anal. Mechanics, 40. A couple of forces is a system of two parallel and equal forces which act in different lines.
1881. Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., II. 103. The moment of the couple with which terrestrial magnetism tends to turn the … magnet.
fig. 1887. Maurice, in Blackw. Mag., Sept., 293/1. The central ‘couple,’ as the mathematicians would call it, of the European balance—Russia and England.
11. Geom. (See quot.)
1881. C. Taylor, Geom. Conics, 257. If three or more pairs of points A, A′; B, B′; C, C′; &c. be taken on a straight line at such distances from a point O thereon that OA.OA′ = OB.OB′ = OC.OC′ = &c., they are said to constitute a system in Involution.… The points (A, A′), (B, B′), (C, C′), &c. are called Conjugate Points or Couples of the involution.
12. Electr. A pair of connected plates of different metals, used for creating either a galvanic or a thermo-electric current.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, i. App. (1870), 17. The figure represents what is called a thermo-electric pair or couple.
1863–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., II. 415. The system of two dissimilar metals immersed in a liquid which acts on one of them is called a Galvanic or Voltaic Couple.
1885. Watson & Burbury, Math. Th. Electr. & Magn., I. 240.
13. Astron. A double star.
14. attrib. and comb., as couple-balk (Sc.), cf. sense 8 and BALK sb. 11; couple-keep (see quot.).
1843. Bethune, Scott. Peasant’s Fire-side, 113. The wooden frame-work of an old bed … was brought down from the couplebauks of the barn.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Couple-keep is often to be found in advertisements. It means a good crop of early grass fit for ewes and lambs, which must be well fed.
