Other forms: copses
A copse is a small group of trees. A copse on the hill, hide in the copse, a copse of hazel.
It was originally a wood grown to be cut back every few years for poles and firewood. A copse standing in a field is often the one bit of ground too wet or too steep to plough.
1nouncopseA small group of trees.
“The copse on the ridge was the only shelter for a mile.”
copse is a wood.
A contraction of coppice, a wood cut back regularly so new shoots grow from the stumps.
1578, from coppice, by contraction, originally meaning “small wood grown for purposes of periodic cutting”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA