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hov·er (hŭvər, hŏv-)
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v. hov·ered, hov·er·ing, hov·ers
v.intr.
1. To remain floating, suspended, or fluttering in the air: gulls hovering over the waves.
2. To remain or linger in or near a place: hovering around the speaker's podium.
3. To remain in an uncertain state; waver: hovered between anger and remorse.
4. Computers To position a pointer over an object or area of the screen, causing a pop-up box to appear or other change to occur: Hover over the image to display the filename.
v.tr.
1. To cause to hover: The pilot hovered the helicopter a few feet above the icy river.
2. Computers To position (a pointer) over an object or area of the screen: hovered the cursor over the link.
n.
The act or state of hovering: a helicopter in hover.
[Middle English hoveren, frequentative of hoven.]
hover·er n.
hover·ing·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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