slang or vulgar. [f. COVE sb.2 + -Y4.] Little ‘cove.’ (Used of an intimate or associate: cf. CHAPPIE.)
1821. P. Egan, Life in London, 287. The covey was no scholard, as he asserted.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, viii. ‘Hullo! my covey, what’s the row?’
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Hamilton Tighe. ‘What a rum old covey is Hairy-faced Dick!’
