couches

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of couch.

   Both couches in the lobby were upholstered in worn leather.

   Movers carried the heavy couches up three flights of stairs.

   Note

   This is the -es plural English gives nouns that end in a hissing sound, as with benches and torches. Most often it means sofas, the everyday sense in American, Canadian, Irish and Australian English. It also covers older resting-places, otters' dens and the beds of steeped barley on a malting floor. The same spelling serves as the verb's present-tense form, so "two couches" and "she couches" look identical.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of couch.

   The report couches its criticism in cautious, diplomatic language.

   She couches every refusal as a polite suggestion.

   Note

   The present-tense form of a verb that can either lie down itself or lay something else down. Without an object, a creature couches when it reclines or crouches. With an object, someone couches a thing by setting it in a bed or layer, or couches a lance by lowering it into position for attack. Couching criticism in careful words keeps that picture of laying something gently into place.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2