/bʌntʃ/, /bʌnʃ/, /bʌnt͡ʃ/
OriginFrom Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.
Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkō, *bunkô, *bungǭ (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ-, *bʰénǵʰus (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite [Term?] (/panku/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búožė (“knob”), Ancient Greek παχύς (pakhús, “thick”), Kamkata-viri břẽć, břez (“berry tree”), Prasuni vuzra (“berry tree”), Sanskrit बहु (bahú, “thick; much”)).
Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge (“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond (“bundle”).
- A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
“a bunch of grapes”
“a bunch of bananas”
“a bunch of keys”
- The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
- An informal body of friends.
“He still hangs out with the same bunch.”
““I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers,[…], th”
- US, informalA considerable amount.
- informalAn unmentioned amount; a number.
“A bunch of them went down to the field.”
- A group of logs tied together for skidding.
- An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.
“The ore may be disseminated throughout the matrix in minute particles, as gold in quartz; in parallel threads, strings, and plates, as with copper; in irregular pockets or bunches”
- The reserve yarn on the filling bobbin to allow continuous weaving between the time of indication from the midget feeler until a new bobbin is put in the shuttle.
- An unfinished cigar, before the wrapper leaf is added.
“Two to four filler leaves are laid end to end and rolled into the two halves of the binder leaves, making up what is called the bunch.”
- A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.
“They will carry[…]their treasures upon the bunches of camels.”
- obsoleteA seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass, 60 of which constitute a way or web.
- transitiveTo gather into a bunch.
- transitiveTo gather fabric into folds.
- intransitiveTo form a bunch.
“"Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often auth”
- intransitiveTo be gathered together in folds
- intransitiveTo protrude or swell
“A very large ſparry Nodule externally of a brown Colour. It has ſomewhat of the reſemblance of a large Champignon before 'tis open'd, bunching out into a large round Knob at one end, the part proceedi”
- countable, uncountableA surname.
- countable, uncountableAn unincorporated community and census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States, named after Cherokee Rabbit Bunch.
Formsbunches(plural) · bunches(present, singular, third-person) · bunching(participle, present) · bunched(participle, past) · bunched(past) · Bunches(plural)