▪ I. bunch, n.1
(bʌnʃ)
Forms: 5 bonche, 5–6 bunche, bounche, 6–7 bounch, (7 bunsh), 6– bunch.
[Of uncertain origin; prob. onomatopœic; cf. the synonymous bulch, also hunch, lunch (dial.).
As to the relation between bunch n.1, v.2, and bunch n.2, v.1, cf. bump. See also bouche n.2; possibly the bouch(e of the Cursor M. should be read bonch(e, and identified with the present word.]
1. a. A protuberance, esp. on the body of an animal; a hump on the back (of a human being, a camel, etc.); a goitre; a swelling, tumour.
| c 1325 Body & Soul in Map's Poems (1841) 344 Summe were ragged and tayled Mid brode bunches on heore bak. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xix. (1495) 778 A camell of Arabia hathe two bonches in the backe. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. i. x. 9 The gibbosyte or bounch of the liver. 1598 Gerard Herbal i. xl. 60 The leauen made of Wheate..openeth all swellings, bunches, tumors and felons. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 86/1 Bunch, or bunched eminencies. are knots in sprouts or shoots above others in the..Lance. 1728 Morgan Algiers I. iv. 100 The rider sits behind the Bunch or Hump. 1816 Keith Phys. Bot. II. 378 Bunches..on the branches of the Birch-tree..known..by the name of witches' knots. 1826 F. Cooper Mohicans (1829) I. i. 18. 1874 Rep. Vermont Board Agric. II. 428 Their bite is poisonous to a certain extent, as bunches can be felt around their bites. |
† b. In pl. A disease of horses. ? Obs.
| 1706 Phillips, Bunches, Knobs, Warts and Wens, are Diseases in Horses. 1715 in Kersey. 1721–90 in Bailey. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Bunches, in horses called also knobs, warts, and wens, are diseases arising from foul meat, bruises, hard labour, or the like; whereby the blood becoming putrefied and foul, occasions such excrescences. 1775 in Ash. |
† c. ‘The horn of a young stag.’ Obs.
| 1710 R. Blome Gentl. Recreat. 79 [referred to by Halliwell]. |
d. See quot.
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 17 May 4 A cigar consists of three parts, the wrapper, the bunch, and the filler. |
† 2. a. A bundle (of straw). Obs. Also a bundle of reeds, or teasels, containing a definite quantity. dial.
| c 1450 Henryson Test. Cres., For thy bed tak now a bunche of stro. 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. (E.D.S.), Bunch (Camb.), of oziers, a bundle 45 inches round at the band; of reeds, a bundle 28 inches round, formerly an ell. (Ess.) of teazles, 25 heads, otherwise a glean. (Glouc.), of teazles, 20; a glen; of king's teazles, 10. (Yks., N.R.), of teazles, 10. |
b. A certain quantity fastened together for sale, as a bundle of flax.
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Bunch..(Flax-manufacture), three bundles, or 180,000 yards, of linen yarn. 1882 P. Sharp Flax, Tow & Jute 145 The bunch generally weighs about 40 lbs., the number of hanks depending on the size of the yarn. |
3. A collection or cluster of things of the same kind, either growing together (as a bunch of grapes), or fastened closely together in any way (as a bunch of flowers, a bunch of keys); also a portion of a dress gathered together in irregular folds.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 188 A bunche of flowers, floretum. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. ii. xi. On his craven crest A bounch of heares discolourd diversly. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 44 Bunches of Keyes at their girdles. 1610 ― Temp. iv. 112 Vines, with clustring bunches growing. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xiv. 244, I gave him..a bunch of raisins. 1821 Byron in Moore Life (1838) 490 The old woman..brought me two bunches of violets. 1842 Tennyson Day-Dream 64 Grapes with bunches red as blood. 1873 Sir J. Herschel Pop. Lect. Sc. iii. §32. 119 That comet..was a mere bunch of vapours. |
4. fig. A collection, ‘lot’. Also, a company or group of persons.
| 1622 Jackson Judah 76 See what persons God hath picked out of all the bunch of the Patriarches, Prophets, Judges, and Kings. 1633 Sanderson Serm. II. 39 Though..he do but only name it [charity] in the bunch among other duties. 1687 W. Sherwin in Hist. Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) 79 As very a rascal as any in the Bunch. a 1784 Johnson in Boswell (1816) IV. 151, I am glad the Ministry is removed. Such a bunch of imbecility never disgraced a country. 1832 Athenæum No. 243. 355 Two friars are bargaining for a bunch of cherubs. 1840 C. F. Hoffman Greyslaer I. v. 92 You'll find them pretty much here and there, in bunches, helping one another. a 1888 Mod. She's the best of the bunch. 1893 W. S. Gilbert Utopia i. 11 Because we are, By furlongs far The best of all the bunch. 1909 G. B. Shaw Lett. to Granville Barker (1956) 156 He will be the best of the bunch, like all new converts. 1936 D. Powell Turn, Magic Wheel i. 37 He liked knowing the ‘Greenwich Village Bunch’. |
5. spec. † a. A pack of cards (obs.) b. A flock of waterfowl. c. (U.S.) A herd of cattle.
| 1563 Foxe in Latimer's Serm. & Rem. (1845) Introd. 12 The best coat card..in the bunch. 1608 Middleton Trick to Catch, &c. ii. i, The best card in all the bunch. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xxv. (1748) 366 The lesser dibbling teale In bunches. 1835 E. Jesse Glean. Nat. Hist. Ser. iii. 146 They [ducks] come in what are called bunches..sometimes..150 ducks in a bunch. 1884 Harper's Mag. July 294/2 The expence of herding a ‘bunch’ of cattle. |
d. bunch of fives: see five n. 3 b.
6. Mining. A small isolated body of ore, etc.
| 1815 W. Phillips Outl. Min. & Geol. (1818) 160 The ores both of copper and tin principally occur in quantities which..occupy..but a small comparative portion of the vein, and are..termed bunches. 1865 I. T. F. Turner Slate Quarries 20 It took seven years to reach a good bunch of slate. |
7. Comb., as † bunch-back, a back with a ‘bunch’ or hump; † bunch-backed a., hump-backed; bunch-bean U.S., a dwarf kidney-bean, also called bush-bean; bunch-berry, the dwarf cornel, Cornus canadensis, or its fruit; bunch flower, a liliaceous plant of N. America, Melanthium virginicum; bunch-grass, Festuca scabrella, of N. America; any of various grasses, chiefly of western North America, characterized by growing in clumps; bunch greens, greens sold by the bunch; bunch-knot, a knot joining broken ends of yarn; bunch-oyster, a wild oyster which grows in clusters; bunch pink, a name for the sweet-william; bunch-word (rare), a word formed by agglutination.
| 1618 B. Holyday Juvenal 191 Virginia would exchange her grace Of shape for Rutila's *bunch-back. 1677 W. Charleton Exercit. de diff. et nom. Animal. (ed. 2) 8 The little Scythian Ox with a bunch-back. |
| 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 31 No man shulde rebuke and scorne a blereyied man or gogylyed..or blabberlypped, or *bounchebacked. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. vi. 115 Who..affirme all Jews to be crooked, or bunch-backed. |
| 1787 Washington Diaries (1925) III. 212 The *bunch Nomeny bean. 1805 R. Parkinson Tour in Amer. 341 The bunch-bean..produces abundantly. 1860 Darlington Amer. Weeds 107 The..Dwarf or Bunch Bean. |
| 1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xiv. 106 She got boxberry flowers and fruit, *bunch-berry and star-of-Bethlehem flowers. 1969 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 31 Aug. 11/1 The bunch-berries, I thought, were loveliest of all. |
| 1818 A. Eaton Man. Bot. (ed. 2) 316 Melanthium racemosum *bunch flower. 1899 T. W. Sanders Encycl. Gardening (ed. 3), Melanthium (American Bunch-flower). |
| 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. xii. 203 The upland *bunch grass..retained its nutritious properties..in the autumn. 1866 Intell. Observ. No. 53. 324 Thickly clothed with bunch-grass. 1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds viii. 125 One may ride all day through good bunch-grass pasture. 1959 A. McLintock Descr. Atlas N.Z. 24 Tussock (bunch grass) grasslands, generally with species of Poa and Festuca dominant. |
| 1884 W. S. B. M{supc}Laren Spinning xi. 238 When one end of yarn breaks or runs out, the other must be broken too, and what is called a *bunch-knot tied. |
| 1881 E. Ingersoll Oyster Industry 242 *Bunch oysters, those growing in clusters (South). |
| 1857 Gray Botany 54 Sweet William or *Bunch Pink. 1877 Rep. Vermont Board Agric. IV. 99 Bunch pinks and candytufts coming from self-sown seeds. |
| 1725 Dudley in Phil. Trans. XXXIII. 258 The *Bunch or humpback Whale. |
| 1862 D. Wilson Pre-hist. Man II. xix. 136 Like the *bunch-words, as they have been called, of the American languages, compounded of a number of parts. |
▪ II. † bunch, n.2 Obs.
[f. bunch v.1]
A punch, a thump.
| 1642 Rogers Naaman 193 The Angell gave him [Peter] a bunch on the to-side. |
▪ III. † bunch, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
(bʌnʃ)
Forms: 4–5 bonch, 5 bunche, 5–6 bounch(e, 5– bunch.
[Etymology obscure: perh. onomatopœic; cf. bounce v. and punch v., both which are closely parallel in sense to this word. The Du. bonken to beat, thrash, has been compared, but relationship between it and the Eng. word is very doubtful.]
a. trans. To strike, thump; to bruise flax, etc., by beating it.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 71 He bonchede [v.r. bunched] hem with his Breuet. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 55 Bunchon', tundo. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) i. iii. 34/2 Men..bounche or knocke theyr brestis. 1577 Harrison England i. ii. vi. (1877) 147 A fall..might peradventure bunch or batter it. 1601 Cornwallyes Seneca (1631) 74, I will reele, and bunch hempe. 1671 Charente Let. Customs Mauritania 49 These golden Apples, especially the biggest, bunched in several places with the blows of Musket bullets. 1840 Spurdens Suppl. Voc. E. Anglia (E.D.S.) Bunch, to beat hemp. 1877 Peacock N.W. Lincoln. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cauves bunch their mother's bags as soon as they can stan'. |
b. To kick. (Yorksh., Lincolnsh., etc.)
| 1647 Depos. York Cast. 10 in Peacock N.W. Lincoln. Gloss. (E.D.S.) He actually saw him bunching an old man. 1665 R. Sellar in Abstr. Quakers' Sufferings iii. (1738) 176 They bunched me with their Feet that I fell backwards into a Tub. 1825 Gentl. Mag. XCI. i. 397. 1864 Atkinson Whitby Gloss., He bunch'd me. |
Hence bunchclot, a farmer; a clodhopper.
| 1877 Holderness Gloss. (E.D.S.). |
▪ IV. bunch, v.2
(bʌnʃ)
[f. bunch n.1]
† 1. intr. a. To bulge (out), protrude, stick out. b. To form bunches or clusters. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xxi. (1495) 780 Camelion..his rydgebonys bonchyth vpwarde as it were a fysshe. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 52 b, Hys [the Cameleon's]..ridge bones bounche upward. 1601 Holland Pliny xvi. xxxiv, Big berries growing thick together, and bunching round in manner of grapes. 1603 ― Plutarch's Mor. 1021 Of the round line that part which is..without doth bumpe and bunch. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 342 Which made the wheales to bunch out vpon their backs. 1638 A. Read Treat. Chirurg. xxiii. 167 If the eyes of the patient..bunch out. 1728 Woodward Fossils (R.) Bunching out into a large round knob. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iii. No. 10 Winding up a top badly grooved, so that the string bunches down over the peg. |
c. To crowd together in a body. Also with up.
| 1873 Beadle Undevel. West 60 Buffalo grass and gama grass..show a tendency to bunch together, leaving large portions of the surface bare. 1887 F. Francis Jr. Saddle & Mocassin vii. 124 They had got scared, and had bunched up like a bevy of quail. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 23 Dec. 12/3 The result..is to force the opposing defences back to their own goal and so bunch. 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey i. ii, The really big people don't talk—and don't bunch—they paddle their own canoes in what seem backwaters. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xii. 269 Guisers usually ‘bunch up in groups of three or four’. |
d. Mining. Of a vein or lode of ore: to form an irregular mass. Cf. bunch n.1 6.
| 1883 Baring-Gould J. Herring III. xlviii. 102 The vein ‘bunched’, and the bunch of nearly pure metal was before him. 1889 Temple Bar LXXXV. 26 The lode ran under Orleigh gardens and promised freely to ‘bunch’ under the mansion. |
2. a. trans. To make into a bunch; to gather (a dress) into folds; to group (animals) (U.S.). Also absol. (see quot. 1887). Also with up.
| 1828 Webster, Bunch, v.t., to form or tie in a bunch or bunches. 1869 A. K. McClure Rocky Mountains 99 The horses..have been ‘bunched’ at either end of the hostile country. 1873 ‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age (1903) i. 16 The speaker bunched his thick lips together like the stem end of a tomato. 1881 Chicago Times 16 Apr., When trees are bunched together..they are scrubs. 1883 Chamb. Jrnl. 690 Her hair rudely bunched into an uncomely heap. 1883 Cassell's Family Mag. Aug. 561 Gathering and ‘bunching’ flowers. 1884 Bazaar 22 Dec. 664/2 An over-dress of chintz, much bunched up on hips and at back. 1885 Milnor (Dak.) Free Press 18 Aug. 3/5 They [hogs] stand bunched around at the root of the tree. 1887 Overland Monthly (Farmer), Two men often bunch on the march, i.e. unite their herds for convenience in driving. 1893 G. B. Shaw Let. 27 Apr. (1965) 392 The way you..bunch up your back. |
b. In technical use (see quots.). In Baseball, to secure (hits) in close succession. Chiefly U.S.
| 1883 Chicago Tribune 3 July 6/5 Detroit played a wretched muffing game today and failed to bunch hits. 1905 Terms Forestry & Logging 32 To bunch load, to encircle several logs with a chain and load them at once, by steam or horse⁓power. To bunch logs, to collect logs in one place for loading. 1909 Webster s.v., To bunch..shots (in target practice). |
3. To present (a woman) with a bunch of flowers. Also transf.
| 1901 Daily Chron. 7 Dec. 8/3 The King's gift of a bouquet to Miss Brodrick upon her wedding morning, it is hoped will revive the charming old fashion of ‘bunching’ young beauties, a very modish practice, that only languished a few years ago. 1959 N. Marsh Singing in Shrouds iv. 59 Captain Bannerman felt that in a way he would be bunching Mrs. Dillington-Blick by presenting her with a No. I Personality. 1961 G. Egmont Art of Egmontese v. 99 Send flowers next day with a brief thank-you note. The older the hostess, the more she will like being ‘bunched’. |