couch a hogshead

English

Verb

couch a hogshead (third-person singular simple present couches a hogshead, present participle couching a hogshead, simple past and past participle couched a hogshead)

1. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) To lie down to sleep.
   • 1566, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors‎^[1], T. Bensley, published 1814, page 66:

     I couched a hogshead in a Skypper this darkemans.

   • 1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton‎^[2], volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129:

     Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

   • 1992, Cynthia Morgan, Court of Shadows:

     Mayhap we have been in the same bousing ken or stalling ken at some time. Mayhap we have couched a hogshead at the same house in Southwark.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:go to bed

References

• [Francis Grose] (1788) “Couch a hogshead”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC.
• Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors (1889–1890) “Couch a hogshead, to”, in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant […], volumes I (A–K), Edinburgh: […] The Ballantyne Press, →OCLC, page 274.
• John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1893) “couch a hogshead”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume III, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, page 329.