carpets

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of carpet.

   The store sells handwoven carpets from several different regions.

   They rolled up the old carpets before repainting the room.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of carpet: separate rugs or pieces of floor covering, or several of the moths in the geometrid subfamily Larentiinae, which are themselves called carpets. When the fabric is meant as a material rather than as items, carpet usually stays uncountable and singular. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, so a preceding subject is the quickest way to tell them apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of carpet.

   The contractor carpets the office floors over the weekend.

   She carpets every room in soft wool before listing the house.

   Note

   Here the spelling works as a verb, taking he, she, it or a singular noun as its subject. Its range runs from the practical sense of laying or installing carpet in a room to a figurative, transitive one, where something covers a surface thickly, as snow or moss might. In British usage it can also mean "reprimands," a sense that has nothing to do with floors.

   Each autumn the fallen leaves carpet the lawn, and by November moss carpets the north side of every stone.

   Spring snow carpets the hills above the village.

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