Link Centre Dictionary

bunch

UK/bʌntʃ/ US/bʌnʃ/ common informal us
noun (3) verb (2)

noun

1.

a grouping of a number of similar things

  • “a bunch of trees”
  • “a cluster of admirers”
Synonyms
2.

an informal body of friends

  • “he still hangs out with the same crowd”
Synonyms
3.

any collection in its entirety

  • “she bought the whole caboodle”
Synonyms

verb

1.

form into a bunch

  • “The frightened children bunched together in the corner of the classroom”
Synonyms
2.

gather or cause to gather into a cluster

  • “She bunched her fingers into a fist”
  • “The students bunched up at the registration desk”
Synonyms

Origin

From 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”), 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”).

Phrases

  • best of the bunch
  • bunch grass
  • bunch in
  • bunch of fives
  • bunch pink
  • bunch together
  • bunch up
  • get one's panties in a bunch
  • one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch
  • thanks a bunch
  • Willow Bunch

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.