couching

English

Etymology

From Middle English couchynge; equivalent to couch +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊt͡ʃɪŋ/
• Hyphenation: couch‧ing

Verb

couching

1. present participle and gerund of couch.

Noun

couching (plural couchings)

1. The act of one who couches.
   • 2003, Josep Asunción, The Complete Book of Papermaking, New York, N.Y.: Lark Books, →ISBN, page 80:

     Couching involves transferring the sheet of paper from the mould to the felt.

   1. (ophthalmology) An early, largely obsolete, method of treating a cataract by using a sharp object to displace the opaque lens in the eye.
      • 2006, Sanduk Ruit, Geoffrey C. Tabin, Charles C. Wykoff, “Cataract Surgery”, in Fighting Global Blindness: Improving World Vision through Cataract Elimination, Washington, D.C.: American Public Health Association, →ISBN, page 21:

        [C]ataract surgery has been employed for more than 20 centuries. The primary surgical technique for the large majority of this time was a procedure called couching. The first written description of couching is from an Indian surgeon, Susruta, circa 600 BC, involving the insertion of a needle into the eye and displacement of the lens out of the visual axis through either inferior or superior dislocation.

   2. (textiles) Embroidering by laying the materials upon the surface of the foundation, instead of drawing them through.

Derived terms

• couching stitch

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “couching”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)