Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for HOV'ER
HOV'ER, v.i. [W. hoviaw, to hang over, to fluctuate, to hover.]
- To flap the wings, as a fowl; to hang over or about, fluttering or flapping the wings, with short irregular flights. Great flights of birds are hovering about the bridge, and settling on it. Addison.
- To hang over or around, with irregular motions. A hovering mist came swimming o'er his sight. Dryden.
- To stand in suspense or expectation. Spenser.
- To wander about from place to place in the neighborhood; to move back and forth; as, an army hovering on our borders; a ship hovering on our coast. Cranch's Rep.
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