Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Hover

Hover , noun

[Etymol. doubtful.]

A cover; a shelter; a protection. [Archaic] — Carew

Hover , intransitive verb

[Old English hoveren, and hoven, prob. orig., to abide, linger, and from Anglo-Saxon hof house; compare OFries. hovia to receive into one's house. See Hovel.]

1.
To hang fluttering in the air, or on the wing; to remain in flight or floating about or over a place or object; to be suspended in the air above something.
Great flights of birds are hovering about the bridge, and settling on it. — Addison
A hovering mist came swimming o'er his sight. — Dryden
2.
To hang about; to move to and fro near a place, threateningly, watchfully, or irresolutely.
Agricola having sent his navy to hover on the coast. — Milton
Hovering o'er the paper with her quill. — Shakespeare