COVE. A small inlet or sheltered bay in a coast-line. In English dialect a cave or recess in a mountain-side. The use of the word was first confined to a small chamber or inner recess in a room or building. Hence the particular application in archi tecture (q.v.) to any kind of concave moulding. The term "coving" is given in half-timbered work to the curved soffit under a projecting window, or carrying the gutter of a house. The slang use of "cove" for any male person, like a "fellow," "chap," is found in the f "cofe" in T. Harman's Caveat for Cursetors (1587) and other early quotations, cf. the Scots word "cofe," a pedlar, hawker.