Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. UK Und.) a man.

c.1535		R. Copland Hye Way to the Spyttel House line 1046: Inow, ynow: with bousy coue maimed nace Teare the patryng coue in the darkman cace.
c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 84: gentry cofe a noble or gentleman .
1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: The word Coue, or Cofe, or Cuffin, fignifies a Man, a Fellow, &c. But differs something in his property, according as it meetes with other wordes : For a Gentleman is called a Gentry Coue, or Cofe: A good fellow, is a Bene Cofe.
1612		Dekker ‘O per se O’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 11: For all your Duds are bingd awaste / the bien cove hath the loure.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush II i: A cove! fumbumbis!
1654		Witts Recreations ‘Fancies & Fantasticks’ No. 126: There’s a Gentry Cove here, / Is the top of the shiere, / Of the Bever Ken, / A man among men.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 47: Cove or Cuffin is in general terms a Man.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iiiitem 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Cove, or Cofe, Coffin or Cuffin, a Man, a Fellow.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Cove, a Man.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 195: The old Cove [...] was ready to hang himself in his own Garters.
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 22: What does the Cove want?
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 18: A Man – Cove.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxvi: A Cove, or Cull A Man – Cull is likewise frequently used to signify a Fool.
a.1789		G. Parker ? ‘Sandman’s Wedding’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 65: None of the coves dare but like it, / As Joey, her kiddy, was there.
1791		‘Flash Language’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 18: A man, a cove.
1807		H. Tufts Autobiog. (1930) 291: A cove, signifies a man.
c.1811		‘A Leary Mot’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 77: For he valued neither cove nor swell, for he had wedge snug in his cly.
1821		J. Burrowes Life in St George’s Fields 4: A thorough-bred Surrey Cove allows of no place under the sun to stand in comparison.
1834		Three Years Practical Experience of a Settler in NSW in Sydney Monitor 14 Nov. 1838 2/4: There is an immense deal of slang in the language of the country — ‘cove,’ ‘gammon,’ ‘plant’ are as familiar as household words.
1835		‘Frisky Poll Of Broker’s Alley’ Knowing Chaunter 19: Squinting Poll of Broker’s-alley, / Got quite nutty vith the cove, [...] Poll swore that he was quite the kick.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 5 Mar. n.p.: I am hired at Chatham Square, a cove to do the valking.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Feb. 4/2: Miles’ Boy does not know the Cove who commands.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 276: Such a seedy-looking cove.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 95: There’s the cove that’ll do the trick for you!
1861		Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 216: Old ABE’s a prig that all my coves do fear.
1869		‘Edward Howe’ Boy in the Bush 158: The cove is so jolly green, it’s my belief he’ll never miss ’em.
1871		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: All the male portion of humanity may now be recognised, from boyhood to old age, under the title ‘coves,’ ‘buffers,’ ‘shavers,’ ‘fogies,’ and ‘flukes;’ buffers and fogies are particularly appropriate to grey hairs.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 182: And murmered with a sickly smile, / ‘General duty cove’.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 220: The landlord was a ‘fly cove’; he took his dukeship in and sent down for an inspector of police at once.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 21 June 61: [caption] Blest if there ain’t a cove goin ’ fishing for winkles with a double-barrelled blunderbus.
1888		J. Runciman Chequers 114: A regular toff [...] and yet he will speak to ordinary coves without exhibiting the least pride!
1892		H. Lawson ‘Visit of Condolence’ in Roderick (1972) 32: I wouldn’t like to see a cove collar a cove’s job an’ not tell a bloke about it.
1893		Castling & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] No, ’Arry don’t ask me to marry 🎵 For you’re the only cove I know is good.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 145: This cove is a-talkin to old Bob Moody, the Jockey Club janitor.
1911		T.A. Dorgan Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit 17 Dec. [synd. cartoon strip] Three cheers for old coves.
1913		H. Lawson ‘Benno & his Old ’Uns’ in Roderick (1972) 803: Benno is a ‘peaceful sort o’ cove’ as a rule.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 175: He must be a popular sort of cove.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 57: You’re an odd cove [...] Your trouble is that you’re too serious.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 154: ‘A cove ought to have got to Blighty out of that’ [i..e a wound].
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 2 Nov. [synd. cartoon] There’s that Queensland cove what won all our money.
1947		J. Symons Man Called Jones (1949) 119: Devil of a queer cove he was.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 115: A cove of the name of Spinoza.
1969		A. Garve Boomerang 143: You know, Birdie, for a Pommie bastard you’re quite a bright cove.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 14: You’d better take that Cretan cove with you.
1983		T. Paulin [title] ‘A Rum Cove, a Stout Cove’.
1998		P. Bailey Kitty and Virgil (1999) 21: The rantings and ravings of that tiresome old cove.
2000		Guardian 12 Jan. 10: A decent sort of cove.
2005		H. Mantel Beyond Black 132: I know that cove, he’s dead he is.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] He palmed the photo over. ‘Lookin’ for this cove’.

2. (UK Und.) a receiver.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

3. the owner or manager of an establishment, esp. (Aus.) of a sheep station.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 233: cove: the master of a house or shop, is called the Cove; on other occasions, when joined to particular words, as a cross-cove, a flash-cove, a leary-cove, &c., it simply implies a man of these several descriptions; sometimes, in speaking of any third person, whose name you are either ignorant of; or don’t wish to mention, the word cove is adopted by way of emphasis.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 218: The Cove and Covess of the Sluicery [...] are pocketing the blunt almost as fast as they can count it.
1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 65: ‘How far is it to your cove’s?’ (master’s).
1856		Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/2: Boss —Noun. A cove, a beak, a guvnor, a nob, an old ’un, a big-wig etc.
1862		Sydney Morn. Herald 8 Dec. 5/4: ‘[T]he cove,’ to render in Australian the English slang of ‘the governor,’ gave orders that no unmanageable animals should longer be supplied me.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 62: A station manager was formerly known as a super or cove.

4. a member of the boxing fraternity, of Fancy, the n. (1)

1823

Observer 26 May 2: Flash and slang of course predominated among the genuine Coves [...] the poor ‘Yokels’ were horror struck at the depraved expressions.

5. a sheriff’s officer, a policeman.

1829

Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 75: Spy if you twig any coves or beaks.

6. an assistant, a shop-boy.

1866

J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 304: I’m a greengrocer’s cove now – carries out coals, and taters, and all that. [Ibid.] 305: I should say you was a linen-draper’s cove.

7. constr. with a, oneself, e.g. a cove ought to get drunk once in a while.

1866

Wild Boys of London I 152/1: If he did do for the Welcher, it was a haxident; a cove can’t alwis regulate the pressure when the hug’s on.

8. see cove of the ken