Definition of "couchant" [couch•ant]

• Heraldry Lying down with the head raised. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "“The crest is a Stag couchant, vulnerated through the neck by a broad arrow; on his side is a Martlett for a difference.”"
• "In the aisle stands another altar-tomb, which has the sides panelled and adorned with shields of arms and bears the figure of an earlier Sir Thomas Markenfield, clad in armour of the period between Poitiers and Agincourt, and wearing a very curious collar of park palings with a stag couchant in front, possibly"
• "* And if descriptivism is rampant, would prescriptivism be "couchant"?"