bushel

Meanings

Noun

• A dry measure, containing four pecks, eight gallons, or thirty-two quarts.
• A vessel of the capacity of a bushel, used in measuring; a bushel measure.
• A quantity that fills a bushel measure.
• A large indefinite quantity.
• The iron lining in the nave of a wheel.

Verb

• To mend or repair clothes.
• To pack grain, hops, etc. into bushel measures.

Origin

• From Middle English busshel, from Old French boissel, from boisse, a grain measure based on Gaulish *bostyā ("handful"), from Proto-Celtic *bostā ("palm, fist") (compare Breton boz ("hollow of the hand"), Old Irish bas), from Proto-Indo-European *gwost-, *gwosdʰ-.