cover Definition

cover
verb covered, covering

1. To form a layer over someone or something.

Thesaurus: envelop, wrap, encase.
2. To protect or conceal someone or something by putting something over them or it.

Thesaurus: wrap, hide, protect, screen, shield, submerge, disguise.
3. To clothe.
4. To extend over something.
5. To strew, sprinkle, spatter, mark all over, etc.
6. To bring (a feeling, etc) upon oneself, often in an overwhelming way.

Form: cover with something (usually)
7. To deal with (a subject).

Thesaurus: deal with, treat, include, incorporate, comprise, contain, explore, record, note.
8. Said of a reporter, etc: to investigate or report on (a story).
9. To have as one's area of responsibility.
10. To travel (a distance).
11. To be adequate to pay.

Example: He had enough money to cover the meal
12. To insure; to insure against something.
13. To threaten by aiming a gun at someone or something.
14. To keep (a building, its exits, etc) under armed watch.
15. To shield with a firearm at the ready or with actual fire.
16. sport.
To protect (a fellow team-member) or obstruct (an opponent).
17. Said of a stallion, bull, etc: to mate with (a female).
18. Said of a bird: to sit on (eggs).
19. To record a cover version of (a song, etc).
intr
20. To take over the duties of an absent colleague, etc.

Form: cover for someone (usually)

noun

1. Something that covers.
2. A lid, top, protective casing, etc.

Thesaurus: canopy, lid, awning, tarpaulin, canvas, tent.
3. The covering of something.
4. The sheets and blankets on a bed.

Form: covers
5. The paper or board binding of a book, magazine, etc; one side of this.
6. An envelope.

Example: a first-day cover
7. Shelter or protection.

Thesaurus: shelter, protection, refuge, asylum, camouflage, defence, umbrella, shield.
8. Insurance.
9. Service.

Example: emergency cover
10. A pretence; a screen; a false identity.

Example: His cover as a salesman was blown
11. Armed protection; protective fire.
12. cricket.
See cover point.
13. In restaurants, etc: an individual place setting at table.
14. A cover version.

Idiom: under cover

In secret.

Within shelter.

Idiom: under cover of something

Using it as a protection or pretense.

Idiom: under plain cover

In a plain envelope without tradename, etc.

Idiom: under separate cover

In a separate envelope or parcel.

Etymology: 13c: from French covrir, from Latin cooperire to cover completely.

Phrasal Verb: cover something up

To cover it entirely.To conceal (a dishonest act, a mistake, etc).