pleached

English

Etymology

From pleach +‎ -ed.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pliːtʃt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /plit͡ʃt/
• Rhymes: -iːtʃt

Adjective

pleached (comparative more pleached, superlative most pleached)

1. Entwined, intertwined, interwoven, plaited.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene xiv], page 362, column 2:

     Would'ſt thou be window'd in great Rome, and ſee / Thy Maſter thus with pleacht Armes, bending downe / His corrigible necke, his face ſubdu'de / To penetratiue ſhame; [...]

     Would you be looking through a window in great Rome, and see / Your Master thus, with entwined arms [tied together], bending down / His docile neck, his face subdued / with shame penetrating through [i.e. blushing]; [...]

2. (horticulture) Of a hedge, trees, etc.: created by interweaving branches.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     [T]he prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thicke pleached alley in mine orchard, were thus much ouer-heard by a man of mine: [...]

   • 1857, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Days:

     I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp.

   • 2019, Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me, Jonathan Cape, page 229:

     The garden ended in [...] pleached fruit trees.

Derived terms

• self-pleached

Verb

pleached

1. simple past and past participle of pleach