Both Uses of
alcove
in
Moby Dick
- Pedestrians in the vicinity of London and elsewhere may recollect having seen large curved bones set upright in the earth, either to form arches over gateways, or entrances to alcoves, and they may perhaps have been told that these were the ribs of whales.†
Chpt Extr *
- Meanwhile, upon questioning him in his broken fashion, Queequeg gave me to understand that, in his land, owing to the absence of settees and sofas of all sorts, the king, chiefs, and great people generally, were in the custom of fattening some of the lower orders for ottomans; and to furnish a house comfortably in that respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy fellows, and lay them round in the piers and alcoves.†
Chpt 19-21
Definition:
a recessed or secluded space -- such as in a room or garden
The alcove of a room is a smaller room attached to a larger room and separated by an arch or other architectural feature other than a door.