bunch

plural bunches

1. collectiveA group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.

   a bunch of keys

   5 more examples

   a bunch of grapes

   a bunch of bananas

   a bunch of yobs on a street corner

   When we had examined this last find, Lord Godalming and Quincey Morris taking accurate notes of the various addresses of the houses in the East and the South, took with them the keys in a great bunch, and set out to destroy the boxes in these places.

   1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula

   I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: cluster, group

2. collectivecyclingThe peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
3. collectiveAn informal body of friends.

   He still hangs out with the same bunch.

   1 more example

   “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers,[…], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: pack, group, gang, circle

4. USinformalA considerable amount.

   a bunch of trouble

5. informalAn unmentioned amount; a number.

   A bunch of them went down to the field.

6. businessA group of logs tied together for skidding.
7. businessAn unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.

   The ore may be disseminated throughout the matrix in minute particles, as gold in quartz; in parallel threads, strings, and plates, as with copper; in irregular pockets or bunches

   1874, David Page, Economic Geology: Or, Geology in Its Relations to the Arts and Manufactures

   Synonyms: ore pocket, pocket, pocket of ore, kidney, nest, nest of ore, ore bunch, bunch of ore

8. businessThe 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.
9. lifestyleAn unfinished cigar, before the wrapper leaf is added.

   Two to four filler leaves are laid end to end and rolled into the two halves of the binder leaves, making up what is called the bunch.

10. A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.

    They will carry[…]their treasures upon the bunches of camels.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 30:6

11. obsoleteartsA seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass, 60 of which constitute a way or web.

present singular third person bunches · participle present bunching · participle past bunched · past bunched

1. transitiveTo gather into a bunch.
2. transitiveTo gather fabric into folds.
3. intransitiveTo form a bunch.

   1 more example

   "Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of being strung out over several block sections, as would be necessary if absolute working were in force.

   1962 October, “Talking of Trains: The collisions at Connington”, in Modern Railways, page 232

   Synonyms: cluster, group

4. intransitiveTo be gathered together in folds
5. intransitiveTo protrude or swell

   A very large ſparry Nodule externally of a brown Colour. It has ſomewhat of the reſemblance of a large Champignon before 'tis open'd, bunching out into a large round Knob at one end, the part proceeding from it being leſs, round, and not unlike a Stalk.

   1729, J[ohn] Woodward, “Classis V. Corpora Coralloidea, & hisce affinia.”, in An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England; […], tome I, London: […] F[rancis] Fayram, […]; J[ohn] Senex, […]; and J. Osborn and T[homas] Longman, […], →OCLC, part I (Of the Fossils that are Real and Natural: […]), page 144

plural Bunches

1. countableA surname.

   Gloria Stephenson had been walking a family dog when she used a zebra crossing in Burdon Road at about 13:00 BST on 16 May, prosecutor Michael Bunch told the court.

   2026 May 15, Duncan Leatherdale, “Teen jailed for killing gran on zebra crossing”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 22 Aug 2026, retrieved 26 Sep 2026

2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community and census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States, named after Cherokee Rabbit Bunch.