bunch

Meanings

Noun

• A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
• The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
• An informal body of friends.
• A considerable amount.
• An unmentioned amount; a number.
• 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 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.
• A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.

Verb

• To gather into a bunch.
• To gather fabric into folds.
• To form a bunch.
• To be gathered together in folds
• To protrude or swell

Related

Similar words

• cluster, group
• pack, group, gang, circle
• ore pocket, pocket, pocket of ore, kidney, nest, nest of ore, ore bunch, bunch of ore

Origin

• From Middle English bunche, bonche, of uncertain origin.
• Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung), from Proto-Germanic *bunkō, *bunkô, *bungǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ-, *bʰéng̑ʰus. Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke, West Frisian bonke, Dutch bonk, Low German Bunk, German Bunge, Danish bunke, Faroese bunki; Hittite, Tocharian B pkante ("volume, fatness"), Lithuanian búožė ("knob"), Ancient Greek παχύς ("thick"), Sanskrit बहु ("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").