coucher


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couch

 (kouch)
n.
1.
a. A sofa.
b. A sofa on which a patient lies while undergoing psychoanalysis or psychiatric treatment.
2.
a. The frame or floor on which grain, usually barley, is spread in malting.
b. A layer of grain, usually barley, spread to germinate.
3. A priming coat of paint or varnish used in artistic painting.
v. couched, couch·ing, couch·es
v.tr.
1. To word in a certain manner; phrase: couched their protests in diplomatic language.
2. To cause (oneself) to lie down, as for rest.
3. To embroider by laying thread flat on a surface and fastening it by stitches at regular intervals.
4. To spread (grain) on a couch to germinate, as in malting.
5. To lower (a spear, for example) to horizontal position, as for an attack.
v.intr.
1. To lie down; recline, as for rest.
2. To lie in ambush or concealment; lurk.
3. To be in a heap or pile, as leaves for decomposition or fermentation.

[Middle English couche, from Old French culche, couche, from couchier, to lay down, lie down, from Latin collocāre; see collocate.]

couch′er n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
returned home, with his thoughts fully occupied with the various things he had seen and heard in the course of the evening, when an usher announced that the same crowd of courtiers who, in the morning, had thronged his lever, presented themselves again at his coucher, a remarkable piece of respect which, during the reign of the cardinal, the court, not very discreet in its preferences, had accorded to the minister, without caring about displeasing the king.
"Je viens de la decouverte, et je vais me coucher."
D'un autre cote, le tube digestif va travailler d'une facon saccadee une fois le soir venu, car tous les repas seront pris a quelques heures d'intervalle, et precedant en general immediatement le coucher.
Le Coucher d'Yvette, as the act was billed, showed a girl undressing to go to bed.
Le mois de Ramadan en Palestine reste tout de mUuo"me un mois de fUuo"te, avec le sacro-saint repas de famille aprUuA s le coucher du soleil,
The tracks are "Matamua" (9:48), "Moon and Earth" (6:28), "Tonglen" (7:38), "Stern an Stern" (6:50), "Coucher de Lune" (4:46), "Schein Und Widerschein" (9:26), "Desert Dream Green" (7:37), and "Mericoeur" (8:23), 61 min.
Il devait etre recu par le president israelien a l'issue du jour de repos hebdomadaire juif, au coucher du soleil, mais l'heure exact de l'entretien n'etait pas connue dans l'immediat.
Not long ago Network Rail chief executive Ian Coucher picked up a pounds 1.25m package, half in bonuses, making it more than pounds 8m during his eight years in charge, all funded by us, the taxpayers.
And so it was in the case of former Network Rail boss Iain Coucher.