[f. BUNCH sb.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), 78. Camelion … his rydgebonys bonchyth vpwarde as it were a fysshe.
1572. 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. Ibid. (1603), Plutarch’s Mor., 1021. Of the round line that part which is … without doth bumpe and bunch.
1622. Mabbe, trans. 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, 144 (R.). Bunching out into a large round Knob at one end.
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.
2. trans. To make into a bunch; to gather (a dress) into folds; to group (animals) (U.S.).
1881. Chicago Times, 16 April. When trees are bunched together … they are scrubs.
1883. Chamb. Jrnl., 3 Nov., 690/2. 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.
