couchee

French couché (“a sleeping place”), from coucher. See couch.

• IPA^(key): /kuːˈʃeɪ/

couchee (plural couchees)

1. (obsolete) A reception held at bedtime, such as by a royal.
   • 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     None of her sylvan subjects made their court,
     Levees and couchees passed without resort.

   • a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, edited by [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC:

     The duke's levees and couchees were so crowded that the antechambers were full.

• “couchee”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.