▪ I. pleach, n.
(pliːtʃ)
[f. pleach v.]
Interlacing, intertwining; intertwinement of boughs; spec. a flexible branch or stake or an intertwined arrangement of these, forming a hedge.
| 1819 J. H. Wiffen Aonian Hours (1820) 45 His nest, the pleach Of many a wilding bough in the next giant beech. 1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words & Phrases 283 Pleach, is described to be a branch of whitethorn brought down and laid horizontally in a fence to thicken a weak part. It is notched (or snotched) at the point of tact with the earth which is loosened to encourage the pleach to strike root. 1920 E. Pound Umbra 114 Come buds on bough and spalliard pleach. 1941 [see header 5 d]. 1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts xx. 244 Stakes of cleft ash or chestnut..is [sic] driven into the ground, to form a rough ‘weave’ or pleach, depending on the flexibility of the stems. 1976 Countryman LXXXI. i. 56 The hedges have been carefully layered and made stock-proof by the use of horizontal ‘pleaches’, the wide bottoms providing shelter for a variety of wild life. |
▪ II. pleach, v.
(pliːtʃ)
Forms: 5–6 pleche, 6 pleissh(e, Sc. pleich, 7 plesh, plish, 7– pleach.
[ME. pleche, a. OF. *plechier (mod.F. dial. plécher), dial. form of OF. plessier, plaissier plash v.1]
1. trans. To interlace or intertwine (the bent down or half-cut stems and branches of young trees and brushwood) so as to form a fence or the like; = plash v.1 1.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxliii. (Bodl. MS.), The wiþie..is þikker in bowes & spraies bi plechinge schredinge and paringe. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 330 Nowe husbondrie his olde vines plecheth. Ibid. 418 Bende as a bowe, or vynes that men pleche. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §127 Let the toppe of the tree lye ouer the rote of an other tree, and to pleche downe the bowes of the same tree, to stoppe the holowe places. 1523 [see plash v.1 1]. 1818 Keats Endym. iii. 934 Plunder'd vines..pleach'd New growth about each shell and pendant lyre. 1893 Stevenson Catriona xxiii. The trees meeting overhead; some of them trimmed, some pleached. |
b. To layer (a shoot, e.g. of a vine).
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 648 At October in luke lond plecheth [L. propagat] he. |
2. To make, dress, or renew (a hedge or the like) by the above process; = plash v.1 2.
| 1523 [see plash v.1 2]. 1635 Sir E. Verney in Mem. Verney Fam. (1892) I. 129 The Gardner shall pleach noe Hedge this yeare. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Pleach, to bind a hedge. 1874 Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. xiii. 280 The low broad arches of the alleys pleached with vines. 1886 Cornh. Mag. July 32 The banks of the..hedgerows, which were seldom cut or pleached. |
3. generally. To entwine, interlace, tangle, plait.
| 1830 Tennyson Poems 125 Pleached with her hair, in mail of argent light Shot into gold, a snake her forehead clips. 1861 F. Metcalfe Oxonian in Irel. 96 The earth, being pleached together by the roots of dwarf willows and grass, has defied the pelting storm. 1865 Swinburne Poems & Ball., At Eleusis 209 Poppied hair of gold Persephone Sadtressed and pleached low down about her brows. |
Hence ˈpleaching vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1398 [see sense 1]. 1504 Nottingham Rec. III. 314 For pleisshing at the coppy [= coppice]. 1804 J. Grahame Sabbath (1839) 18/1 Tangled so thick with pleaching brambleshoots, With brier and hazel branch, and hawthorn spray. 1889 Boy's Own Paper 21 Dec. 178/3 The pleaching [of the hedges] ended at the foot of a rise in the ground. |