Cot′trel.
A hook and trammel for suspending a cooking-vessel. Couch. 1. (Malting.) The heap of steeped barley on the floor where the grains undergo germination, effecting the change into malt. The operation of couching takes about fourteen days, and the subsequent kiln-drying, which arrests germination, takes two days.2. (Paper-making.) To take the flake of imperfectly compacted pulp from the mold or apron on which it has been formed. With hand-laid paper this is the business of the coucher, who receives the mold from the dipper and couches the sheet upon a felt. In paper-machinery the operation is performed by a roller called the couching-roller. 3. A reclining seat, bed, or sofa. [637] The Greeks adopted the couch from the Persians. “After this had been said, Cymilcus asked for some spiced and boiled water to drink; saying he must wash down all those salt arguments with sweet drink. [Salted fish had been the subject under discussion.] And Ulpian said to him with some indignation, and slapping his pillow with his hand, ‘How long will it be before you leave off your barbarian tricks?’ ” — Deipnosophists, III. 94. 4. (In painting, etc.) The ground or base on which the color is applied; a varnish or sizing. The term is also used in leather-gilding, gold-wire drawing, and other mechanical arts.
