/kɒps/
Origin1578, from coppice, by contraction, originally meaning “small wood grown for purposes of periodic cutting”.
- A coppice: an area of woodland managed by coppicing (periodic cutting near stump level).
- Any thicket of small trees or shrubs, coppiced or not.
“Agrimonie groweth in places not tylled, in rough stone mountaynes, in hedges and Copses, and by waysides.”
“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,
Among the woods and cop”
“Three thundercloven thrones of oldest snow, / Stood sunsetflushed: and, dewed with showery drops, / Upclomb the shadowy pine above the woven copse.”
- Any woodland or woodlot.
- transitiveTo trim or cut.
- transitiveTo plant and preserve.
Formscopses(plural) · copses(present, singular, third-person) · copsing(participle, present) · copsed(participle, past) · copsed(past)