bunches

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of bunch.

   The florist arranged several bunches of tulips in the window.

   Workers cut and stacked the bunches of grapes into crates.

   Note

   A regular plural, formed with -es because the singular ends in ch. It covers every countable meaning of the noun: clusters of grapes or flowers, informal groups of friends, logs tied together for skidding. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, as in "the fabric bunches." A following of-phrase, as in bunches of grapes, usually shows you have the noun.

2. 2
   nouncountableplural

   Hair gathered and tied together in two or more separate parts, usually one on each side of the head; pigtails.

   Her mother brushed out the tangles and tied her hair into neat bunches.

   The dancers all wore matching ribbons in their bunches for the recital.

   Similarpigtails

   Note

   A hairstyle word that exists only in the plural. Hair is worn in bunches, never in a bunch, because the style always means at least two gathered parts. The usual construction is to wear or put one's hair in bunches. Pigtails is the close synonym. Unlike the ordinary plural of bunch, this sense has no singular to fall back on.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of bunch.

   The thin lining bunches near the seam whenever she bends down.

   The vendor bunches the carrots by their tops for easy sale.

   Note

   A present-tense form that agrees with he, she, it or a singular noun, and it works in two ways. Someone bunches the carrots, which is transitive, or fabric simply bunches by itself, which is intransitive. The intransitive use often pairs with up, as in underwear that bunches up or a lining that bunches at the seam. It describes cloth gathering into unwanted folds.

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