copse
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of copse
First recorded in 1570–80; alteration of coppice
Explanation
A copse is a thicket of bushes or a small stand of trees. A copse of trees can provide a good hiding place during a game of hide-and-seek. If you go to your local garden shop and ask about how to take care of your copse, you may get some blank stares, as it's not a word you'll find much in everyday use. The word first appeared in the late 16th century, as a shortened form of coppice, a word still used in British English, referring to an area with trees or shrubs that are periodically cut back to the ground so that they grow back thicker.
Vocabulary lists containing copse
Stump Speech: Tree Terminology
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Beloved
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Crime and Punishment
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I remember pulling my rental car into the parking lot of a small church tucked away in a copse.
From Slate ● Oct. 24, 2024
Around every bend are tiny rewards - a copse of trees with the Olympic rings poking out, a tiny reflecting-pool shrine that exhorts people to “remember here those who gave their lives for peace.”
From Washington Times ● Sep. 23, 2023
The hulking mass of the Hagia Sophia, the sixth-century church that became the enduring symbol of Christendom, seemed like a basilica to me again, surrounded by a copse of slim, tapered minarets.
From New York Times ● May 12, 2022
The remains were found by a forestry worker in a beech copse by the road which runs between Cirencester and Stroud.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2020
When we stopped to rest in a copse, we did not all sleep, but one at a time stayed awake to watch the Serjeant and make sure he attempted no act against us.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
