cove
»I’m not cut for a respectable cove.» (T. T. T. 161. 20.)
Uneducated young man.
»Her master seems to have been an odd sort of a cove.» (T. T. T. 172. 20.)
A waiter.
»This cove looks young.» (The Passing 12. 12.)
A constable.
Cove (also covey, cofe, cuffing, and, in the feminine, covess) is a common vulgarism for man, person. The term is no doubt derived from the old Gipsy word cova = man.
It is, I should think, not quite as vulgar as the synonymous bloke.