Definition of "parterre"

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, […], page 238

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 parterre to mix flowers and veg, but this relaxed jungle of productive plants, packed in tight together, is lusher and more beautiful than the more usual Villandry style, where single or pairs of plants are used.

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 (Gardening)‎, archived from the original on 3 September 2015

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