knife pleat

6.3

A narrow fold in cloth pressed flat in one direction, often used in skirts

noun
/naɪf plit/

Specialized

: pliegue de cuchillo

The uniform skirt was designed with neat knife pleats for a classic look.

Examples

She carefully ironed each knife pleat to keep them crisp and defined.
The dress features a beautiful knife pleat design.
The dress featured a row of knife pleats along the hem, giving it elegant movement.
Can you see the knife pleats on her skirt?
The designer added a stylish knife pleat to the dress to enhance its elegance and movement.
Her skirt featured several knife pleats that added a flattering shape when she twirled.
During the sewing class, we learned how to create knife pleats for our skirts.

Antonyms

pleatless

6.3

Smooth and flat with no folded fabric, like a skirt or trousers

How Narrow

knife pleat

Specialized

6.3

inverted pleat

Specialized

6.9

box pleat

Specialized

6.4

to pleat

13 4.4

Surface Forms

knife pleat singular

knife pleats plural

Morphology

knife + pleat

The compound is transparently compositional: 'pleat' is a fold in fabric and 'knife' clearly conveys a narrow, sharp quality, so a learner who knows both words can infer a narrow, sharply pressed fold. This modifier + noun pattern is common in clothing vocabulary and cross-linguistically analogous, making the sense accessible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Knife pleat comes from the sharp, straight look of the cloth when it is pressed: the pleat forms a thin, knife-like edge and each 'fold' faces the same way. That's why the term means a narrow, sharply pressed fold often used in skirts and other clothes.