Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A thicket of small trees or shrubs; a coppice.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cut or trim, as brushwood, tufts of grass, and the like.
  • To plant or preserve, as underwoods.
  • To inclose as in a copse.
  • To form a coppice; grow up again from the roots after being cut down, as brushwood.
  • Also coppice.
  • noun Same as cops.
  • noun See coppice.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A wood of small growth; a thicket of brushwood. See coppice.
  • transitive verb To trim or cut; -- said of small trees, brushwood, tufts of grass, etc.
  • transitive verb To plant and preserve, as a copse.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A thicket of small trees or shrubs.
  • verb transitive, horticulture To trim or cut.
  • verb transitive, horticulture To plant and preserve.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a dense growth of bushes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English copys, from Old French copeiz, thicket for cutting, from coper, couper, to cut; see cope.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

  • I mean at least on my left hand (upon which side they were), for in front where the brook ran out of the copse was a good stiff hedge of holly.

    Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004

  • In the copse was a hidden patch of bare earth, known only to Janie and several thousand people who were wont to use it in pairs at night.

    More Than Human Sturgeon, Theodore, 1918-1985 1953

  • Beyond the copse was a row of huddled-up cottages.

    Five Fall Into Adventure Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 1950

  • In the heart of the copse was a rude wooden bench, built some years before by the factor's orders.

    The Cryptogram A Story of Northwest Canada William Murray Graydon 1905

  • Such little meadows as these about the copse are the favourite resort of birds and the very home of flowers -- more so than extensive woods like the Chace, or the open pastures and arable fields.

    Round About a Great Estate Richard Jefferies 1867

  • I mean at least on my left hand (upon which side they were), for in front where the brook ran out of the copse was a good stiff hedge of holly.

    Lorna Doone; a Romance of Exmoor 1862

  • The chief timber of the copse was the pecan hickory -- almost an evergreen -- and the trees were still in full leaf; only here and there, where the trunks stood far apart, did the moonbeams strike through the thick frondage.

    The War Trail The Hunt of the Wild Horse Mayne Reid 1850

  • No need saying that the cavalcade seen passing the copse is the lancer troop of Colonel Uraga.

    The Lone Ranche Mayne Reid 1850

  • Whilst he and Leander walked over the hill, they descended into a fine valley, at the bottom of which was a little kind of copse or thicket, composed of stately tall trees and close quickset hedges.

    The Inhuman Stepmother, or the History of Miss Harriot Montague Anonymous 1770

  • "Every human being has a natural right to walk across this copse, which is all waste ground, and has no crop sown in it.

    The British Barbarians Grant Allen 1873

Comments

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  • And robberse!

    November 11, 2010