bunchy, a.
(ˈbʌnʃɪ)
[f. bunch n.1 + -y1.]
1. Bulging, protuberant; full of protuberances or swellings; humped.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth De P.R. vii. lxiv. (1495) 280 The nayles ben boystouse and bounche [1582 bounchye] as they were scabbed. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. i. x. 9 The lyver is hollowe in the inwarde parte..and bounchye wythout. 1562 Phaër æneid. ix. C civ, An vnshapen bunchy speare [rudem nodis hastam]. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 76 The fat in their [camels] bunchy back. 1873 Besant & Rice Little Girl ii. xx. 185 Augustine, the fat, the bunchy, the smiling. Mod. Who is that with the bunchy skirts? |
2. a. Like a bunch; having bunches or clusters.
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 213 So as to hang..in a sort of bunchy festoon. 1833 Tennyson Poems 72 Bowers Trellised with bunchy vine. 1852 Rock Ch. Fathers III. i. 111 Those leaf-like bunchy finials..seem all too soft and light to be of stone. |
b. Mining. (See quots.)
| 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 88 The Ore in this nidus is bunchy and uncertain. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 173 The surface often uneven and bunchy. 1849 J. Weale Dict. Terms Archit. s.v. Bunch, A mine that is sometimes rich and at other times poor, is said to be bunchy. 1867 Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 6) 504 s.v. Bunch, A lode is said to be bunchy when the metalliferous ore is found in irregular and sparsely distributed masses. |
c. bunchy top, a virus disease of plants (esp. bananas) in which the leaves are crowded at the tip of the stem.
| 1919 Agric. Gaz. N.S. Wales XXX. 809, I lately visited the Tweed River district..to investigate the disease known as ‘Bunchy Top’ in bananas. 1930 Discovery June 196/1 Other important virus diseases of plants include, bunchy top of bananas, [etc.]. 1935 Union S. Afr. Dept. Agric. Sci. Bull. CXXXIX. 46 (title) Further investigations on the bunchy-top disease of tomato. 1951 New Biol. XI. 76 Bunchy Top Disease, a virus disease, transmitted by the banana aphid, Pentalonia nigronervosa. |