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What is the meaning of the word "couple" in the following sentence? "I'll be gone a couple of days".

(Vinita Manohar, Hyderabad)

Dictionaries define the word couple as "two". So it can mean that you will be gone for two days. But usually in everyday speech, the word "couple" is used to mean "a few". So you could be gone for more than two days. When someone says that there were a couple of shops open, it doesn't necessarily mean there were only two shops open. It could mean that there were more than two shops open. The word is used to refer to an unspecified number; the number is usually small.

S. Upendran

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