covess
An archaic British term for a woman, derived from the thieves' cant word 'cove' (a man, a fellow) with a feminine suffix.
Definitions
An archaic British term for a woman, derived from the thieves' cant word 'cove' (a man, a fellow) with a feminine suffix. The word belongs to the cant vocabulary of 17th and 18th-century British criminal and underworld speech and has no meaningful modern usage.
The old cant dictionary listed covess alongside mort and bawdy-basket as terms for women of various kinds.
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(archaic, British) A woman.
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- autem cove74%
(obsolete, UK, thieves) A married man.
- gentry cove71%
Old thieves' cant for a gentleman — someone with money, manners, and a target on their back. In the criminal underworld of 18th-century Britain, a gentry cove was the mark worth following through a crowded market. The word "cove" was slang for any man or fellow, while "gentry" flagged his social class. It's the ancestor of every hustle that separates marks from their cash.
- gentry cove69%
(obsolete, UK, thieves) A gentleman.
- badge-cove68%
(archaic, thieves' cant) A parish pensioner.