bocage

[boh-kahzh]

noun Fine Arts.

a decorative motif of trees, branches, or foliage, as in a tapestry or a ceramic figure group.

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Origin of bocage

1635–45; < French; Old French boscage boscage

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for bocage

Contemporary Examples

At Moissy they headed into a one-lane road, both banks thick with bocage.
The Deadly Trap Behind D-Day’s Beaches
Clive Irving
June 5, 2014
The other, benign, face of the bocage was its role as an unbelievably productive larder.
The Deadly Trap Behind D-Day’s Beaches
Clive Irving
June 5, 2014
These “Rhinos” sliced through the bocage in seconds and changed the course of the battle.
The Deadly Trap Behind D-Day’s Beaches
Clive Irving
June 5, 2014

Historical Examples

A similar mercy was vouchsafed to this priest of the Bocage.
Balthasar
Anatole France
Bocage is a separate district in the Departments of the Orne and Calvados.
Rambles in Normandy
Francis Miltoun
This is known as the Bocage, a name which suggests rich foliage.
Normandy
G. E. Mitton
You go to the Bocage, Adelaide, you are more active than I am.
Autumn Glory
Ren Bazin
The forest region of the Bocage has ever been a theme for poets and painters.
The Cathedrals of Southern France
Francis Miltoun

British Dictionary definitions for bocage

bocage

noun

the wooded countryside characteristic of northern France, with small irregular-shaped fields and many hedges and copses
woodland scenery represented in ceramics

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Word Origin

C17: from French, from Old French bosc; see boscage

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012