covey

noun

1. A brood or family of partridges (family Phasianidae), which includes game birds such as grouse (tribe Tetraonini) and ptarmigans (tribe Tetraonini, genus Lagopus).

   “But, loa, with a ſuddeyn fluſhing thee galligut Harpeys / From mountayns flitter, with gaggling whirlerye flapping / Their wings: […] This coouie rauenouſe, and ſwift with a deſperat onſet, / They gripte in tallants the meat, and foorth ſpourged a ſtincking / Foule carrayne fauoure: […]”

   “See hovv the vvell-taught pointer leads the vvay: / The ſcent grovvs vvarm; he ſtops; he ſprings the prey; / The flutt'ring coveys from the ſtubble riſe, / And on ſvvift vving divide the ſounding ſkies; […]”

   “"Fine shooting," again muttered Lord Merton; "and if I knew Lord Etheringhame, he might ask me to shoot over his grounds." Campbell talks of the magic of a name—yes, if the name be partridges. "Well, Adelaide; but how do you mean to contrive it?" […] A lingering hope of the covies gave unusual animation to her brother's manner, when he hoped their acquaintance was only begun: […]”

2. (broadly)A group of other birds, such as quail (superfamily Phasianoidea).

   “Like when you quail huntin' and it's getting dark and you can hear the boss bird whistlin' tryin' to get the covey together again, and he's coming toward you slow and whistlin' soft, cause he knows you somewhere around with your gun.”

   “No sooner had I spoken than a covey of perhaps twenty birds flushed wild ahead of us and disappeared into the pine woods. […] Just the slamming of a car door, too much talking, or a fast-moving dog will cause a covey to flush well out of gun range.”

3. (broadly, figuratively)A group or party of people; also, a group or set of things.

   “[T]here is not a better Spanniell in England to spring a couie of queanes than Martin.”

   “VVho are they in the corner? As I live, / A covey of Fidlers; I ſhall have ſome muſicke yet […]”

   “I never did ſpring ſuch a Covye of Mathematicians all at once, as I met vvith at this time, Cervinus or Hart, Cure, John Stacy and Blach, all bred in Merton Colledge.”

   “The whole covey of victims was thus netted; the household ruin was thus full and orbicular; and in that proportion the tendency of men and women, flutter as they might, would be helplessly and hopelessly to sink into the all-conquering hands of the mighty murderer.”

   “Maria, still fondly lingering by Harry's chair, with her hand at the back of it, could see his cards, and that a whole covey of trumps was ranged in one corner.”

4. (British, dated, familiar, slang)A male person, a man; a chap, a chappie.

   “I don't know what would become of these here young chaps, if it wasn't for such careful old coveys as we are— […]”

   “Hullo! my covey, what's the row?”

   “'Pooh!' said he, 'you are as easily wounded as an unfledged dove—don't mind what an old covey like me says—I understand it all.'”

   “There vas an old covey as lived in Wapping, at the time I'm telling you of, who vas connected vith us by ties of common interest.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To gather into a group.

   “Our fortunes and our ſelves, are things ſo cloſely linked, that vve knovv not vvhich is the cauſe of the love that vve finde, vvhen theſe tvvo ſhall part, vve may then diſcover to vvhich of them affection vvill make vvinge; vvhen they are covied together vve knovv not vvhich is in purſuit; vvhen they riſe and breake, vve ſhall then ſee vvhich is aimed at.”

   “O'er many a vvinding dale and painful ſteep, / Th' abodes of coveyed grouſe and timid ſheep, / My ſavage journey, curious, I purſue, / Till fam'd Breadalbaine opens on my view.— […]”

   “The lapwing's covied tribes forsake / The fens, to seek the glassy lake.”

   “There are immense quantities of wild ducks on the rivers, but they are shy, and it is difficult to approach near enough to shoot them. There is a duck called the raft duck, because it is so numerous, coveying together in "whole rafts."”

   “No sooner had I spoken than a covey of perhaps twenty birds flushed wild ahead of us and disappeared into the pine woods. They were not coveyed up, but were scattered out over 100 yards, feeding.”

name

1. A surname from Irish.