parterres

Noun

parterre (plural parterres)

1. A flowerbed, particularly an elevated one.
   • The window opened towards a most lovely garden, whose smooth turf and gorgeous parterres swept down to the river.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Sir Robert Walpole and House”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 238
2. A garden with paths between such flowerbeds.
   • Parham House, near Pulborough in West Sussex, has a four-acre walled garden that was restored in the Twenties and has been maintained at a high level ever since. It is divided into four areas, one of which is filled by the cut-flower borders and a box-enclosed parterre. […] It is traditional in a...2015 August 29, Sarah Raven, “The stately home garden where you can pick-and-eat all summer [print version: Pick-and-eat planting for the modern parterre, page 5]”, in The Daily Telegraph...
3. A part of the section of theater seats located on the ground floor, on the same level as the orchestra.
   • That was Selwyn's first encounter with the Ruthvens. A short time afterward at the opera Gerald dragged him into a parterre to say something amiable to one of the amiable débutante Craig girls—and Selwyn found himself again facing Alixe.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
   1. The part of the ground-floor section nearest the orchestra and the stage; the stalls.
   2. (UK) The part of the ground-floor section behind the stalls and underneath the galleries; the pit.
4. (broadly) That part of a theater audience seated in the parterre, sometimes regarded as belonging to a lower social class.

See all 7 meanings of parterre