plait

From Middle English pleit, from Anglo-Norman pleit (compare Old French ploit), from Latin plectō, which is akin to Old Norse flétta (Danish flette) and to Russian сплетать (spletatʹ). Doublet of plight (“plait, fold”).

• IPA^(key): /pleɪt/, /plæt/

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• Homophones: plate, plat
• Rhymes: -æt
• Rhymes: -eɪt

plait (plural plaits)

1. A flat fold; a doubling, as of cloth; a pleat.

   a box plait

   • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 1051505315:

     the plaits and foldings of the drapery

2. A braid, as of hair or straw; a plat.

• pleat

• Plait in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

plait (third-person singular simple present plaits, present participle plaiting, simple past and past participle plaited)

1. (transitive) To fold; to double in narrow folds; to pleat

   to plait a ruffle

2. (transitive) To interweave the strands or locks of; to braid

   to plait hair

   plaiting rope

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:

     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.

• Patil, Pilat, lapti

plait

1. post-1990 spelling of plaît (third-person singular present indicative of plaire)

• pilât, pliât

From Old French plait, plet.

plait (plural plaits)

1. Alternative form of ple

From Latin placitum (“decree”).

plait m (oblique plural plaiz or plaitz, nominative singular plaiz or plaitz, nominative plural plait)

1. agreement
2. argument; dispute
3. court (of law)
4. plea; ask; demand

• plaidier

• → Middle English: plait
  • English: plea
  • Scots: plaid

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (plait)
• plai on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub