parterre

noun parterres

1. A flowerbed, particularly an elevated one. The window opened towards a most lovely garden, whose smooth turf and gorgeous parterres swept down to the river.
2. A garden with paths between such flowerbeds. 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 pa
3. A part of the section of theater seats located on the ground floor, on the same level as the orchestra. 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.
4. The part of the ground-floor section nearest the orchestra and the stage; the stalls.
5. UK The part of the ground-floor section behind the stalls and underneath the galleries; the pit.
6. broadly That part of a theater audience seated in the parterre, sometimes regarded as belonging to a lower social class.
7. New York, US An apartment balcony.