girdle vs pleach

girdle

noun
  • The removal or inversion of a ring of bark in order to kill or stunt a tree. 

  • The clitellum of an earthworm. 

  • The line of greatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting. 

  • A garment used to hold the abdomen, hips, buttocks, and/or thighs in a particular shape. 

  • That which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference 

  • A belt or sash at the waist, often used to support stockings or hosiery. 

  • The zodiac; also, the equator. 

  • A thin bed or stratum of stone. 

verb
  • To gird, encircle, or constrain by such means. 

  • To kill or stunt a tree by removing or inverting a ring of bark. 

pleach

noun
  • A notch cut into a branch so that it can be bent when pleaching is carried out. 

  • An act or result of interweaving; specifically, (horticulture) a hedge or lattice created by interweaving the branches of shrubs, trees, etc. 

  • A branch of a shrub, tree, etc., used for pleaching; a pleacher. 

verb
  • To unite by interweaving, as (horticulture) branches of shrubs, trees, etc., to create a hedge; to interlock, to plash. 

How often have the words girdle and pleach occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )