Leafed

Leafed is a term with several related senses in English. As an adjective, it describes something that has leaves or is densely foliated, and it can also describe a surface that has leaves applied to it in decorative contexts. In botany and horticulture, leafed or leafed-out is commonly used to indicate that a plant has produced its leaves; for example, a shrub may be described as leafed, or a tree may be leafed out by late spring. The phrase heavily leafed is also used to convey dense foliage.

Leafed is also the past tense of the verb leaf, meaning to turn the pages of a book or document, or to browse casually. In this sense, phrases such as “She leafed through the catalog” or “He leafed the files” are used, with “leaf through” being the more idiomatic form for the action of browsing pages.

In decorative arts, leafing refers to applying leaf, such as gold leaf, to a surface. A panel or frame can be described as leafed with gold, or gilded with gold leaf, indicating that a thin sheet of metal was applied to the surface.

Etymology: the form is created by adding the -ed suffix to the noun leaf. Related terms include leafy (abounding in leaves) and leafless (without leaves). Leafed thus has both horticultural and literary uses, depending on context.