coppice
English
    
WOTD – 31 July 2012

A recently coppiced alder.
Alternative forms
    
- coppis (obsolete)
Etymology
    
From Middle English copies, from Old French copeiz (“a cut-over forest”), from presumed Vulgar Latin *colpaticium (“having the quality of being cut”), from *colpāre (“to cut, strike”), from *colpus (“a blow”), from Latin colaphus (“a cuff, box on the ear”), from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos, “a blow, slap”).
Pronunciation
    
- IPA(key): /ˈkɒpɪs/
- Audio (Southern England) - (file) 
Noun
    
coppice (plural coppices)
- A grove of small growth; a thicket of brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel or other purposes, typically managed to promote growth and ensure a reliable supply of timber. See copse.
- 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict:- […] belts of thin white mist streaked the brown plough land in the hollow where Appleby could see the pale shine of a winding river. Across that in turn, meadow and coppice rolled away past the white walls of a village bowered in orchards, […]
 
- 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 216:- It was also enacted that all coppices or underwoods should be enclosed for periods from four to seven years after felling.
 
 
Synonyms
    
Derived terms
    
Translations
    
grove of small growth
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Verb
    
coppice (third-person singular simple present coppices, present participle coppicing, simple past and past participle coppiced)
- (transitive) To manage (a wooded area) sustainably, as a coppice, by periodically cutting back woody plants to promote new growth.
- Her plan to coppice the woods should keep her self-sufficient in fuel indefinitely.
 
- (intransitive) To sprout from the stump.
- Few conifer species can coppice.
 
Translations
    
manage a wooded area as a coppice
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sprout from the stump
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References
    
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “coppice”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. [see also its linking entry coup]
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