pleach
/plit͡ʃ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To unite by interweaving, as (horticulture) branches of shrubs, trees, etc., to create a hedge; to interlock, to plash.
Transitive verb
noun
An act or result of interweaving; specifically, (horticulture) a hedge or lattice created by interweaving the branches of shrubs, trees, etc.
Example Sentences
- "Her Vine, the merry chearer of the heart, / Vnpruned, dyes: her Hedges euen pleach'd, / Like Priſoners wildly ouer-growne with hayre, / Put forth diſorder'd Twigs: [...]"
- "Nectar ran / In courteous fountains to all cups outreach'd; / And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless, pleach'd / New growth about each shell and pendent lyre; [...]"
- "The season in which to pleach is not when the hedge is growing, but in the fall, between the falling of the leaves and the time when winter sets in. Osage thorn hedge should not be pleached during severe freezing weather, but pleaching may be done in mild weather, when there is but little frost in the wood, and in the winter in southern latitudes. In the northern belt, where the Osage thorn thrives, which is as far north as southern Wisconsin, it is not safe to pleach in winter."
- "[I]n Messina, he pleaches Leonato's bower with honeysuckle; [...]"
- "In the southern and western districts of the county [Shropshire], a hatchet used by farmers and gardeners is called a "brummuck." [...] "Pleaching" hedges, a task needing much skill, is done with brummucks."
- "Here the reed warblers swing their dainty cradle, rocked by every gust which sways the tall reeds which they cunningly pleach and plait into its fragile sides, but woven deep enough to guard their tiny green and brown marbled eggs from accident."
Etymology
The verb is from Late Middle English pleshe, Middle English plechen, pleche (“to layer; to propagate (a plant) by layering, to pleach”), possibly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French plesser, plessier, Middle French plescer, variants of Middle French, Old French plaissier, plessier (“to plash”), from Late Latin *plaxus, from Latin plexus (“braided, plaited, woven; bent, twisted”), perfect passive participle of plectō (“to braid, plait, weave; to bend, turn, twist”). The noun is derived from the verb.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *pleḱ-, pleshe, plechen, -, plesser, plescer
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /plit͡ʃ/
- British English: /pliːtʃ/