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

National Trust manager Andrew Poad previously said the stump was "healthy" and they might be able to coppice the tree, where new shoots grow from the trunk's base.

From BBC • Oct. 2, 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

She traced two long, distinct lines, but stopped of a sudden at the apex of the second angle, where the coppice runs to a point, with her face puckered up in a great perplexity.

From The Courtship of Morrice Buckler A Romance by Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)