means A pleat is a fold of fabric pressed or stitched into place to add shape, fullness, or decoration to a garment.

from "Pleat" is a variant of "plait," both descended from Middle English and ultimately from Old French "pleit," a fold, which traces back to Latin "plicare," to fold or bend. That same Latin root quietly fathered a whole family of folding words — "apply," "reply," "complicate," "ply" — all bending back to the simple idea of laying one thing over another.