hove

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /həʊv/
• Rhymes: -əʊv

Etymology 1

From Middle English hoven (“to linger, wait, hover, move aside, entertain, cherish, foster”), from Old English *hofian (“to receive into one's house”), from Proto-Germanic *hufōną (“to house, lodge”), from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, height, farm, dwelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *keup- (“to arch, bend, buckle”). Cognate with Old Frisian hovia (“to receive into one's home, entertain”), Old Dutch hoven (“to receive into one's home, entertain”). Related to Old English hof (“court, house, dwelling”). More at hovel.

Alternative forms

• huve, huff, houf (Scotland)

Verb

hove (third-person singular simple present hoves, present participle hoving, simple past and past participle hoved)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To remain suspended in air, water etc.; to float, to hover.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:

     As shee arrived on the roring shore, / In minde to leape into the mighty maine, / A little bote lay hoving her before […].

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To wait, linger.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVIII:

     Sir Launcelot saw thys, as he hoved in the lytyll leved wood [...].

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To move on or by.
4. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To remain; delay.
5. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To remain stationary (usually on horseback).

Etymology 2

From Middle English hoven, alteration (due to hove, hoven, past tense and past participle of heven (“to heave”)). More at heave.

Verb

hove (third-person singular simple present hoves, present participle hoving, simple past and past participle hoved)

1. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal) To raise; lift; hold up.
2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To rise.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

     Astond he stood, and vp his haire did houe, / And with that suddein horror could no member moue.

Etymology 3

Inflected forms.

Verb

hove

1. (nautical) simple past tense and past participle of heave
2. (obsolete or dialectal) simple past tense and past participle of heave
   • 1884: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VIII

     Pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself and hove off the blanket, and it was Miss Watson's Jim! I bet I was glad to see him.

Synonyms

• heaved