Something used to conceal shame; a garment used to cover nakedness; also fig. b. The shrub Juniperus Sabina or Savin, employed to procure abortion.
1629. Gaule, Holy Madn., 86. He … hath made him a new kinde of Catch-credit, of his old Couer-shame.
1659. Gayton, Art of Longevity, 73. Thou cover-shame, old Figtree.
1681. Dryden, Span. Friar, III. i. Does he put on holy Garments for a Cover-shame of Lewdness?
1693. Reply to Ladies Petit., in Harl. Misc. (1745), IV. 419/2. Those dangerous plants called cover-shame, alias savin, and other anti-conceptive weeds and poisons.
1886. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Cover-shame, Juniperus Sabina.
