couple

noun

• 1two people or things of the same sort considered together:a couple of girls were playing marbles
• a pair of partners in a dance or game.
• (plural couple) a pair of hunting dogs.
• (couples) two collars joined together and used for holding hounds together.
• a pair of rafters.
• Mechanics a pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions, and tending to cause rotation about an axis perpendicular to the plane containing them.

• 2 [treated as singular or plural] two people who are married or otherwise closely associated romantically or sexually: in three weeks the couple fell in love and became engaged a honeymoon couple

• 3 informal an indefinite small number: [as pronoun]:he hoped she’d be better in a couple of days we got some eggs—would you like a couple? [as determiner]:just a couple more questions North Americanclean the stains with a couple squirts dishwashing liquid

verb

• 1 [with object] link or combine (something) with something else:a sense of hope is coupled with a palpable sense of loss
• connect (a railway vehicle or a piece of equipment) to another:a cable is coupled up to one of the wheels
• connect (two electrical components) using electromagnetic induction, electrostatic charge, or an optical link: (as adjective coupled)networks of coupled oscillators
• [no object] (couple up) join to form a pair: the beetles may couple up to form a pair

• 2 [no object] mate or have sexual intercourse: as middle-class youth grew more tolerant of sex, they started to couple more often