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.

   Mrs. Newsome wore at operatic hours a black silk dress—very handsome, he knew it was "handsome"—and an ornament that his memory was able further to identify as a ruche.

   1903 September 28, Henry James, The Ambassadors, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC

3. A pile of arched tiles, used to catch and retain oyster spawn.

present singular third person ruches · participle present ruching · participle past ruched · past ruched

1. To flute or pleat (fabric).

   ruched curtains

   3 more examples

   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.

   1864, Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine

   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, ...

   1899, The Country Gentleman, page 337

   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.

   1984, Natalie Rothstein, Madeleine Ginsburg, Avril Hart, Four hundred years of fashion, page 138

2. To bunch up (fabric); to ruck up.

   Joe Baxter pulled the dress farther down, so it was ruched around my middle, the bottom half pulled up to my stomach.

   2014, Harriet Evans, Not Without You, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 47

   2 more examples

   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.

   2017, Laura Trentham, An Indecent Invitation: Spies and Lovers Book 1, Laura Huskins, →ISBN

   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.

   2018, Raquel Byrnes, Tremblers, Pelican Ventures Book Group, →ISBN