What's the difference between cover and cower?

Cover


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To overspread the surface of (one thing) with another; as, to cover wood with paint or lacquer; to cover a table with a cloth.
  • (v. t.) To envelop; to clothe, as with a mantle or cloak.
  • (v. t.) To invest (one's self with something); to bring upon (one's self); as, he covered himself with glory.
  • (v. t.) To hide sight; to conceal; to cloak; as, the enemy were covered from our sight by the woods.
  • (v. t.) To brood or sit on; to incubate.
  • (v. t.) To shelter, as from evil or danger; to protect; to defend; as, the cavalry covered the retreat.
  • (v. t.) To remove from remembrance; to put away; to remit.
  • (v. t.) To extend over; to be sufficient for; to comprehend, include, or embrace; to account for or solve; to counterbalance; as, a mortgage which fully covers a sum loaned on it; a law which covers all possible cases of a crime; receipts than do not cover expenses.
  • (v. t.) To put the usual covering or headdress on.
  • (v. t.) To copulate with (a female); to serve; as, a horse covers a mare; -- said of the male.
  • (n.) Anything which is laid, set, or spread, upon, about, or over, another thing; an envelope; a lid; as, the cover of a book.
  • (n.) Anything which veils or conceals; a screen; disguise; a cloak.
  • (n.) Shelter; protection; as, the troops fought under cover of the batteries; the woods afforded a good cover.
  • (n.) The woods, underbrush, etc., which shelter and conceal game; covert; as, to beat a cover; to ride to cover.
  • (n.) The lap of a slide valve.
  • (n.) A tablecloth, and the other table furniture; esp., the table furniture for the use of one person at a meal; as, covers were laid for fifty guests.
  • (v. i.) To spread a table for a meal; to prepare a banquet.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In a debate in the House of Commons, I will ask Britain, the US and other allies to convert generalised offers of help into more practical support with greater air cover, military surveillance and helicopter back-up, to hunt down the terrorists who abducted the girls.
  • (2) Photograph: Guardian The research also compiled data covered by a wider definition of tax haven, including onshore jurisdictions such as the US state of Delaware – accused by the Cayman islands of playing "faster and looser" even than offshore jurisdictions – and the Republic of Ireland, which has come under sustained pressure from other EU states to reform its own low-tax, light-tough, regulatory environment.
  • (3) The surface of all cells was covered by a fuzzy coat consisting of fine hairs or bristles.
  • (4) Five patients have been examined by defecography before and four after closure of a loop ileostomy performed to cover healing of the pouch and ileoanal anastomoses.
  • (5) A failure to reach a solution would potentially leave 200,000 homes without affordable cover, leaving owners unable to sell their properties and potentially exposing them to financial hardship.
  • (6) It was an artwork that fired the imaginations of 2 million visitors who played with, were provoked by and plunged themselves into the curious atmosphere of The Weather Project , with its swirling mist and gigantic mirrors that covered the hall's ceiling.
  • (7) But because current donor contributions are not sufficient to cover the thousands of schools in need of security, I will ask in the commons debate that the UK government allocates more.
  • (8) The degree of infection and incidence of different genera covering the same period were identical in both series.
  • (9) At first it looked as though the winger might have shown too much of the ball to the defence, yet he managed to gain a crucial last touch to nudge it past Phil Jones and into the path of Jerome, who slipped Chris Smalling’s attempt at a covering tackle and held off Michael Carrick’s challenge to place a shot past an exposed De Gea.
  • (10) The Sports Network broadcasts live NHL, Nascar, golf and horse racing – having also recently purchased the rights for Formula One – and will show 154 of the 196 games that NBC will cover.
  • (11) As to complications they recorded in one case mucosal bleeding after gastrofiberoptic polypectomy and in one case a covered perforation of the sigmoid at the site of colonoscopic polypectomy.
  • (12) The pressure is ramping up on Asda boss Andy Clarke, who next week will reveal the chain’s sales performance for the quarter covering Christmas.
  • (13) This week MediaGuardian 25, our survey of Britain's most important media companies, covering TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, music and digital, looks at BSkyB.
  • (14) When allegations of systemic doping and cover-ups first emerged in the runup to the 2013 Russian world athletics championships, an IOC spokesman insisted: “Anti-doping measures in Russia have improved significantly over the last five years with an effective, efficient and new laboratory and equipment in Moscow.” London Olympics were sabotaged by Russia’s doping, report says Read more We now know that the head of that lauded Moscow lab, Grigory Rodchenko, admitted to intentionally destroying 1,417 samples in December last year shortly before Wada officials visited.
  • (15) Chapman and the other "illegals" – sleeper agents without diplomatic cover – seem to have done little to harm American national security.
  • (16) This hydrostatic pressure may well be the driving force for creating channels for acid and pepsin to cross the mucus layer covering the mucosal surface.
  • (17) A retrospective study of autopsy-verified fatal pulmonary embolism at a department of infectious diseases was carried out, covering a four-year period (1980-83).
  • (18) Over the same period, breeding in drums dropped from 14%-25% to 4.7%, even though the drums were not treated or covered.
  • (19) The study covered 500 children from Warsaw's primary schools--250 children aged 6-8 years and 250 aged 13-15 years.
  • (20) The smaller interfaces cover about 700 A2 of the subunit surface.

Cower


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To stoop by bending the knees; to crouch; to squat; hence, to quail; to sink through fear.
  • (v. t.) To cherish with care.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Stephen Fisher, one of the archaeologists recording the site, says digging the trenches would also have been training for the men, who would soon have to do it for real, and the little slit trenches scattered across the site, just big enough for one man to cower in, might represent their first efforts.
  • (2) In the cities worst hit by street fighting, such as Aden, civilians are either cowering at home to avoid sniper fire and bombardment or have joined the more than half million Yemenis forced out of their houses and now looking for food and shelter.
  • (3) Reporters were initially told that one of Bin Laden's wives was killed while he was using her as a human shield, prompting headlines such as "Osama bin Laden killed cowering behind his 'human shield' wife ".
  • (4) The trial on Friday heard from defence ballistics expert Tom Wolmarans who testified that it was impossible to be certain how Steenkamp fell when she was hit by bullets, challenging the prosecution's implication that she might have been cowering in fear.
  • (5) The special constable found his driver, cowered behind her shield and watched a brick fly through the air, strike the ground and split in two.
  • (6) Infantile delivery also frequently serves to take the curse off self-publicity; sleight of hand for those who find "my programme is on BBC2 tonight" too presumptuous and exposing, and prefer to cower behind the low-status imbecility of "I done rote a fingy for da tellybox!"
  • (7) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ed Miliband challenges David Cameron to name a date for a TV debate The Labour leader renewed his call to Cameron to face him in the one-on-one debate proposed by broadcasters on 30 April, saying that the prime minister was “cowering from the public”.
  • (8) The chilling claim that we are all surrounded by an invisible peril was the prelude to evoking an evil that we had long thought was behind us, with May declaring: "It is walking our streets, supplying shops and supermarkets, working in fields, factories or nail bars, trapped in brothels or cowering behind the curtains in an ordinary street: slavery."
  • (9) The Labour party have been hiding in the shadows and cowering in fear.
  • (10) The Prison Service launched an investigation after footage filmed in Forest Bank showed an inmate, who appeared to be hallucinating because of the effect of drugs, writhing on a bed in his cell and cowering in fear at the sight of an apple.
  • (11) Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian I don't drink as a rule, but one proud little abode cowering in the shadow of the monstrosity that is the Beetham Tower is a lovely little old Manchester boozer.
  • (12) Mangena said Steenkamp was shot in the right hip and was cowering when she was hit in the head.
  • (13) State radio went dead, and fearful residents cowered in their homes.
  • (14) He is cowering in the tradition of silence that he inherited,” said Jason Tompkins, an organizer with Black Lives Matter of Chicago.
  • (15) Furthermore, reading through his old interviews, it seems this is very much the new, improved, media-friendly Richard Ayoade: one journalist who encountered him just as the IT Crowd broke found him "cowering" behind his glasses and complaining that he was "terrible at talking, with words".
  • (16) Survivors fled into three eastern enclaves where the Bosnian republican army had resisted: Goražde, Žepa and Srebrenica, their populations swelled by displaced deportees, cowering, bombarded relentlessly and largely cut off from supplies of food and medicine.
  • (17) An age group from 30 to 78 years has been cowered with an average age of 59.
  • (18) The journey has caused the burger to steam into greyness, glueing itself to its soggy bun.The £32 steak appears, cowering in the corner of its container like a whipped puppy.
  • (19) Valentina, a 61-year-old market trader in Ilovaysk, said she had spent 23 days cowering in a cellar with several dozen others, and had been threatened by Ukrainian volunteer battalions who tried to use her and others as human shields and stole mobile phones and other property.
  • (20) For the left upper limb, the site of amputation was at the level of the Cower third of the forearm.