Ruche

"Ruche" is literally French for "beehive," but means something quite a bit different in English. If you use your imagination, however, you can see some similarities.

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.

ruched curtains

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.

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, ...

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.

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

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.

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.