English
ruche
Pronunciation Noun

ruche (plural ruches)

  1. A strip of fabric which has been fluted or pleated.
  2. A small ruff of fluted or pleated fabric worn at neck or wrist.
  3. A pile of arched tiles, used to catch and retain oyster spawn.
Verb

ruche (ruches, present participle ruching; past and past participle ruched)

  1. To flute or pleat (fabric).
    ruched curtains
    • 1864, Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine:
      At each seam the dress opens to a-point over a silk petticoat. The skirt is ruched around the bottom and the openings, between which are bows of ribbon and lace.
    • 1899, The Country Gentleman, page 337:
      This will consist in large part of a half-dozen inexpensive flowered organdies, which she has picked up at various sales for from ten to twenty cents a yard. She has had all of them made with low waists, ruffled or ruched around the corsage, ...
    • 1984, Natalie Rothstein, Madeleine Ginsburg, Avril Hart, Four hundred years of fashion, page 138:
      The matching skirt consists of a drape of pink figured silk, tucked up at the hips to show tiers of machine-made lace frills and pleats […] It is ruched in front and has a train box-pleated into the back.
  2. To bunch up (fabric); to ruck up.
    • 2014, Harriet Evans, Not Without You, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 9781476746043), page 47:
      Joe Baxter pulled the dress farther down, so it was ruched around my middle, the bottom half pulled up to my stomach.
    • 2017, Laura Trentham, An Indecent Invitation: Spies and Lovers Book 1, Laura Huskins (ISBN 9781946306012):
      A woman with an agonized expression on her up-turned face sat with her knees apart while a man buried his head between her legs. Her dress was ruched around her waist, and her breasts were bared. Gilmore's scandalous, erotic art.
    • 2018, Raquel Byrnes, Tremblers, Pelican Ventures Book Group (ISBN 9781611169744):
      Clad in a leather bodice and black skirts ruched up past her knees, the wild-haired rescuer pushed a pair of brass goggles up onto her mop of red locks and squinted. “Well, this is a fine mess,” she said.


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