DOVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Dove

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/dəv/ /doʊv/ Listen

noun

Dove n.

(Zool.) A pigeon of the genus Columba and various related genera. The species are numerous. Note: The domestic dove, including the varieties called fantails, tumblers, carrier pigeons, etc., was derived from the rock pigeon (Columba livia) of Europe and Asia; the turtledove of Europe, celebrated for its sweet, plaintive note, is Columba turtur or Turtur vulgaris; the ringdove, the largest of European species, is Columba palumbus; the Carolina dove, or Mourning dove, is Zenaidura macroura; the sea dove is the little auk (Mergulus alle or Alle alle). See Turtledove, Ground dove, and Rock pigeon. The dove is a symbol of peace, innocence, gentleness, and affection; also, in art and in the Scriptures, the typical symbol of the Holy Ghost.

A word of endearment for one regarded as pure and gentle. "O my dove,... let me hear thy voice."

A person advocating peace, compromise or conciliation rather than war or conflict. Opposite of hawk.

Dove tick (Zool.), a mite (Argas reflexus) which infests doves and other birds.

Soiled dove, a prostitute. (Slang)

verb

Dive v. t. (past & past part. dived, colloq. dove; pres. part. diving)

To plunge (a person or thing) into water; to dip; to duck. (Obs.)

To explore by diving; to plunge into. (R.) "The Curtii bravely dived the gulf of fame." "He dives the hollow, climbs the steeps."

Dive v. i. (past & past part. dived, colloq. dove; pres. part. diving)

To plunge into water head foremost; to thrust the body under, or deeply into, water or other fluid. "It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them." Note: The colloquial form dove is common in the United States as an imperfect tense form. "All (the walruses) dove down with a tremendous splash." "When closely pressed it (the loon) dove... and left the young bird sitting in the water."

Fig.: To plunge or to go deeply into any subject, question, business, etc.; to penetrate; to explore.

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Etymology of 'Dove'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dove" Quotes from Famous Books

... Cleveland, had a vulture Sought a timid dove for prey, Would you not, with human pity, Drive the gory ...

— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... ornament are Arabo-Byzantine. Saracenic pendentives with Cuphic legends incrust the richly painted ceiling of the nave. The roofs of the apses and the walls are coated with mosaics, in which the Bible history, from the dove that brooded over Chaos to the lives of S. Peter and S. Paul, receives a grand though formal presentation. Beneath the mosaics are ranged slabs of grey marble, edged and divided with delicate patterns of inserted glass, resembling drapery with richly embroidered fringes. ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... dove headfirst to grapple with him, there was a sharp report, a lurid gleam of flame in the darkness, and Mohammed Beyd rolled over and over upon the floor to come to a final rest beside the bed of the woman he ...

— Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... practised at Rome, and German, Slav, and Celtic traditions abound in similar myths.[40] Nor are they wanting in the Bible itself, in which we hear of the trees of knowledge and of life, of some celebrated trees in the times of the patriarchs, of the raven and the dove sent out as messengers. The Old Testament speaks of the worship of groves at Ashtaroth in Canaan, of sacrifices under the green trees, and we know that such worship occurred in the Semitic ...

— Myth and Science - An Essay • Tito Vignoli

... or under the verge of the groves. Many a nest of young orioles did Tobie abstract from the last fork of a branch, when the peculiar note of the parent-bird led him on into the midst of the thicket where these delicate creatures hide themselves. The ring-tail dove, one of the most exquisite of table luxuries, he was very successful in liming; and he would bring home a dozen in a morning. He could catch turkeys with a noose, and young pigs to barbecue. He filled baskets with plover's eggs from the high lands; ...

— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau

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