copse

English

Etymology

1578, from coppice, by contraction, originally meaning “small wood grown for purposes of periodic cutting”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɒps/ (UK)
• Rhymes: -ɒps
• Homophone: cops

Noun

copse (plural copses)

1. A thicket of small trees or shrubs.
   • 1798, William Wordsworth, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, lines 9–15 (for syntax):

     The day is come when I again repose

     Here, under this dark sycamore, and view

     These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard tufts,

     Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,

     Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves

     ’Mid groves and copses.

   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth (hardback edition), p19:

     Striking the highway beyond the little copse she skirted the dark iron palings enclosing Hare.

Synonyms

• coppice

Translations

thicket of small trees or shrubs

• Dutch: bosschage f
• Finnish: vesakko (fi)
• French: taillis (fr) m, boqueteau (fr) m
• German: copse
• Irish: rosán m
• Italian: bosco ceduo (it) m, macchia (it) f, fratta (it) f, boschetto m
• Jèrriais: bouais'sie f
• Maori: oro

• Norwegian: skogholt n
• Old English: sceaga
• Polish: zagajnik m
• Romanian: crâng (ro) n, dumbravă (ro) f, pădure măruntă f, subarboret (ro) n, tufiș de arbuști
• Russian: заросли (ru) f pl (zárosli), подлесок (ru) m (podlésok)
• Scottish Gaelic: preasarlach m, frith-choille f
• Spanish: bosquecillo m, soto (es) m, matorral (es) m

See also

• bush, bushes, forest, mott, orchard
• stand, thicket, wood, woods

Verb

copse (third-person singular simple present copses, present participle copsing, simple past and past participle copsed)

1. (transitive, horticulture) To trim or cut.
2. (transitive, horticulture) To plant and preserve.

Anagrams

• copes, scope