hover

verb

1. 1

   To keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.

2. 2

   Of a bird: to shelter (chicks) under its body and wings; (by extension) of a thing: to cover or surround (something).

   Castration has a ſtrange effect: it emaſculates both man, beaſt, and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex. […] Capons have ſmall combs and gills, and look pallid about the head, like pullets; they alſo vvalk vvithout any parade, and hover chickens like hens.

3. 3

   obsoleteOf a bird or insect: to flap (its wings) so it can remain stationary in the air.

   O'er the deer Corps ſomtimes her vvings ſhe [an eagle] hovers, / Somtimes the dead breſt vvith her breſt ſhe covers, […]

   Thus have I lain conceal'd like a vvinter Fly, hoping for ſome bleſt Sun-Shine to vvarm me into Life again, and make me hover my flagging VVings; […]

4. 4

   To remain stationary or float in the air.

   The hummingbird hovered by the plant.

   [T]hough you go to Theaters to see sport, Cupid may cache you ere you departe. The little god hovereth aboute you, and fanneth you with his wings to kindle fire: when you are set as fixed whites, Desire draweth his arrow to the head, and sticketh it uppe to the fethers, and Fancy bestireth him to shed his poyson through every vayne.

   Thus meerely vvith the garment of a grace, / The naked and concealed feind he couerd, / That th'vnexperient gaue the tempter place, / VVhich like a Cherubin aboue them houerd, / VVho young and ſimple vvould not be ſo louerd.

   Long and patiently did I vvait for this unlucky Crovv […] till at length having guzzl'd and croak'd enough, vvhen by hovering over his beloved Dainties, he had raiſ'd himſelf high enough, to prompt me to fire at him, […]

5. 5

   figurativeSometimes followed by over: to hang around or linger in a place, especially in an uncertain manner.

   His pen hovered above the paper.

   The strange man hovered outside the gents’ toilet.

   The visitors were hovering at the door, seemingly unwilling to enter.

   Some helicopter parents weren’t so much dropping off their kids as hovering over them until the event started.

6. 6

   figurativeTo be indecisive or uncertain; to vacillate, to waver.

   Filling in the voting form, I hovered between Labour and Liberal Democrat.

   And the reason why the land-lord will no longer covenant with him [the husbandman], is, for that he dayly looketh after change and alteration, and hovereth in expectation of new worlds.

   When the soul is hovering in the last moments of its separation, […] what can support her under such tremblings of thought, such fear, such anxiety, such apprehensions, but the casting of all her cares upon Him who first gave her being, who has conducted her through one stage of it, and will be always with her in her progress through eternity?

   Arthur Ashburton was rather cold and distant towards her, and was obviously in a bad temper. He even hovered on the verge of rudeness towards both herself and the Lieutenant.

7. 7

   Chiefly followed by over: to use a mouse or other device to place a cursor over something on a screen such as a hyperlink or icon without clicking, so as to produce a result (such as the appearance of a tooltip).

   A tooltip appears when you hover over this link.

8. 8

   To travel in a hovercraft as it moves above a water surface.

noun

1. 1

   An act, or the state, of remaining stationary in the air or some other place.

2. 2

   A flock of birds fluttering in the air in one place.

3. 3

   figurativeAn act, or the state, of being suspended; a suspension.

4. 4

   A cover; a protection; a shelter; specifically, an overhanging bank or stone under which fish can shelter; also, a shelter for hens brooding their eggs.

   Oyſters grevv vpon boughs of trees (an Indian miracle) vvhich vvere caſt in [the pond] thither, to ſerue as a houer for the fiſh.

   And now, down the rushing stream, […] past dark hovers under swirling banks, from which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking him to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the fairies sent them home again with a tremendous scolding, for daring to meddle with a water-baby; […]

   Without the instinct of self-preservation, which causes the sea-anemone to contract its tentacles, or the fish to dash into its hover, species would be extermined wholesale by involuntary suicide.

Forms

plural

hovers

past tense

hovered

past participle

hovered

present participle

hovering

third person singular

hovers