plait
verbEtymology From Middle English pleit, from Anglo-Norman pleit (compare Old French ploit), from Latin plectō, which is akin to Old Norse flétta (Danish flette), Russian плести́ (plestí) and also to Old English fleohtan, which it displaced. Doublet of plight (“plait, fold”) and pleat.
1
To fold; to double in narrow folds; to pleat
- to plait a ruffle
2
To interweave the strands or locks of; to braid
- to plait hair
- plaiting rope
1 more example
- Her abundant hair, of a dark and glossy brown, was neatly plaited and coiled above an ivory column that rose straight from a pair of gently sloping shoulders, clearly outlined beneath the light muslin frock that covered them.1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:
- Derived terms
- interplait, plaiter, plait fog, plait sawdust, replait, unplait