coppice

American  

[kop-is] / ˈkɒp ɪs /

noun

1. copse.

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coppice British  

/ ˈkɒpɪs /

noun

1. a thicket or dense growth of small trees or bushes, esp one regularly trimmed back to stumps so that a continual supply of small poles and firewood is obtained

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verb

1. (tr) to trim back (trees or bushes) to form a coppice

2. (intr) to form a coppice

Other Word Forms

• coppiced
  adjective
• coppicing
  noun

Etymology

Origin of coppice

1375–1425; late Middle English copies < Middle French copeis, Old French copeiz < Vulgar Latin *colpātīcium cutover area, equivalent to *colpāt ( us ) past participle of *colpāre to cut ( see coup ¹) + -īcium -ice

Example Sentences

"For this reason, hazel was often very common in historical coppice woodlands."

From Science Daily • Nov. 14, 2023

“They are molting now, buried in the mud out there,” Douglas said, gesturing toward the marshy coppice that crowds both sides of the two-lane Queen’s Highway, the major north-south road on Andros.

From Washington Post • Oct. 14, 2015

I leant upon a coppice gate     When Frost was spectre-gray, And Winter's dregs made desolate     The weakening eye of day.

From Slate • Jan. 1, 2013

It was the regular opening of the canopies through the coppice regimes in the past that meant a lot of our woodlands had these great displays of spring flowers.

From BBC • Oct. 15, 2012

That night three poachers—a Warford villager and two shoemakers from Warwick—were caught in the coppice, and lodged in Warwick jail.

From The Life of Thomas Wanless, Peasant by Wilson, Alexander Johnstone