Forms: 5 bahche, 5–6 bache, batche, 7 bach, 6– batch. [ME. bache, bacche, repr. an unrecorded OE. *bæcce, f. bacan to BAKE: cf. wake, watch, make, match, speak, speech.]
† 1. The process of baking. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 21. Bahche, or bakynge (v.r. batche), pistura.
1551. T. Wilson, Logike, 42 b. Except the baker doe his part also in the batch.
2. concr. A baking; the quantity of bread produced at one baking.
1461–83. Ord. R. Househ., 70. He shall trulye delyver into the bredehouse … the whole numbyr of his bache.
1530. Palsgr., 197/1. Batche of bredde—fournée de pain.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 186. They had no leisure to make up their bach.
1760. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Col. Mass., i. (1765), 23. The last batch was in the oven.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xix. 192. We … baked a large batch of bread.
fig. 1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. i. 5. Thou crusty batch of Nature, what’s the newes?
† b. ellipt. The bread itself: cf. bread of life. Obs.
1648. Earl Westmoreland, Otia Sacra (1879), 92. Those blest With the True batch of Life may ever rest So satisfi’d.
† 3. fig. and transf. The sort or ‘lot’ to which a thing belongs by origin (as loaves do to their own batch). Obs.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., I. ii. (1616), 9. One is a Rimer Sir, o’ your owne batch.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., II. Wks. (1851), 42. This worthy Motto, No Bishop, no King is of the same batch, and infanted out of the same feares.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr. (1721), I. 47. All sorts of Priest-craft are of one Leven and one Batch.
4. a. The quantity of flour or dough to be used for one baking. b. The quantity of corn sent at one time to the mill to be ground. dial.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. vi. 6. A lytle leauen sowreth the whole batche, wherwith it is myngled.
1570. Levins, Manip., 38. A batche, fermentum.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 90. Bake a loafe of wheat meale as it cometh from the mill in the midst of the batch.
1796. W. Marshall, Midl. Count., II. Gloss., Batch, a grist; a quantity of corn sent to mill.
1859. [J. D. Burn], Autobiog. Beggar Boy, 65. To bring the farmers’ batches to be ground, and take them home when made into meal.
5. transf. A quantity produced at one operation, e.g., a brewing; a lot. arch.
1723. Lond. & Country Brewer, I. (1742), 31. You are welcome to a good Batch of my October [Beer].
1878. Miss Braddon, Open Verdict, I. i. 13. That last batch of soup was excellent.
6. a. A quantity of anything coming at a time, an instalment. b. A number of things or persons introduced, put, or treated together; a set.
a. 1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 85. I have just received a batch of prize-money.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 58. I am not going to favour you with a batch of politics.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Batch (Cornw.), the quantity of ore sent to the surface by a pare of men.
b. [1598; cf. 4.]
1632. Massinger, City Madam, IV. i. A whole batch, sir, Almost of the same leaven.
1793. Ld. Auckland, Corr., III. 75. A new batch of visitors, who are coming for the day.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 39. A baronet of the earliest batch.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. xiv. 297. Shot by platoons and in batches.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxxi. 413. The batch of letters awaiting us in Edinburgh.
7. attrib., as in batch-bread, -flour.
1862. Lond. Rev., 16 Aug., 140. Baking rolls and fancy bread, taking the batch-bread out of the oven.
1878. Halliwell, s.v., Coarse flour is sometimes called batch flour.
