pleach

An allée of pleached trees in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, Italy

A hedge created by pleaching in Wales, UK

The verb is from Late Middle English pleshe, Middle English plē̆chen, pleche (“to layer; to propagate (a plant) by layering, to pleach”),[1] possibly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French plesser, plessier, Middle French plescer, variants of Middle French, Old French plaissier, plessier (“to plash”),[2] 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”),[3] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to fold, plait, weave”).

The noun is derived from the verb.[4]

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: plēch, IPA^(key): /pliːtʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /plitʃ/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtʃ

pleach (third-person singular simple present pleaches, present participle pleaching, simple past and past participle pleached)

1. (transitive) To unite by interweaving, as (horticulture) branches of shrubs, trees, etc., to create a hedge; to interlock, to plash.

   Synonyms: entwine, interlace, plait

   • 1598–1599 (first performance)​, William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: Printed by V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, OCLC 932921146, [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: […]

• impleach
• pleacher
• pleaching (noun)

pleach (plural pleaches)

1. An act or result of interweaving; specifically, (horticulture) a hedge or lattice created by interweaving the branches of shrubs, trees, etc.

   Synonym: plash

2. (horticulture) A branch of a shrub, tree, etc., used for pleaching; a pleacher.

• pleaching on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Chapel, Lepcha, cephal-, chapel