English

Proper noun

Hove

1. A town on the south coast of Sussex, England, west of Brighton

English

Alternative forms

• huve, huff, houf (Scotland)

Verb

hove ‎(third-person singular simple present hoves, present participle hoving, simple past and past participle hoved)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To remain suspended in air, water etc.; to float, to hover.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:

     As shee arrived on the roring shore, / In minde to leape into the mighty maine, / A little bote lay hoving her before […].

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To wait, linger.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter x, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII:

     Alle these xv knyghtes were knyghtes of the table round / Soo these with moo other came in to gyders / and bete on bak the kynge of Northumberland and the kynge of Northwalys / whan sir launcelot sawe this as he houed in a lytil leued woode / thenne he sayd vnto syre lauayn / see yonder is a company of good knyghtes

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To move on or by.
4. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To remain; delay.
5. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To remain stationary (usually on horseback).

Etymology 2

From Middle English hoven, alteration (due to hove, hoven, past tense and past participle of heven ‎(“to heave”)). More at heave.

Verb

hove ‎(third-person singular simple present hoves, present participle hoving, simple past and past participle hoved)

1. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal) To raise; lift; hold up.
2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To rise.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

     Astond he stood, and vp his haire did houe, / And with that suddein horror could no member moue.

Etymology 3

Inflected forms.

Verb

hove

1. (nautical) simple past tense and past participle of heave
2. (obsolete or dialectal) simple past tense and past participle of heave
   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VIII:

     Pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself and hove off the blanket, and it was Miss Watson's Jim! I bet I was glad to see him.

Synonyms

• heaved