branch
See also: Branch
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- braunch (obsolete)
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English branche, braunche, bronche, borrowed from Old French branche, brance, from Late Latin branca (“footprint”, later also “paw, claw”), of unknown origin, possibly from Gaulish *vranca, from Proto-Indo-European *wrónk-eh₂.[1]
Indo-European cognates include Old Norse vró (“angle, corner”), Lithuanian rankà (“hand”), Old Church Slavonic рѫка (rǫka, “hand”), Albanian rangë (“yardwork”).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bränch, IPA(key): /bɹɑːntʃ/
- (US, Northern England) enPR: brănch, IPA(key): /bɹæntʃ/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːntʃ, -æntʃ
NounEdit
branch (plural branches)
- The woody part of a tree arising from the trunk and usually dividing.
- Any of the parts of something that divides like the branch of a tree.
- the branch of an antler, a chandelier, or a railway
- (chiefly Southern US) A creek or stream which flows into a larger river. (compare Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia run, and New York and New England brook.)
- (geometry) One of the portions of a curve that extends outwards to an indefinitely great distance.
- the branches of a hyperbola
- A location of an organization with several locations.
- Our main branch is downtown, and we have branches in all major suburbs.
- A line of family descent, in distinction from some other line or lines from the same stock; any descendant in such a line.
- the English branch of a family
- 1602, Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall
- his father, a younger branch of the ancient stock
- (Mormonism) A local congregation of the LDS Church that is not large enough to form a ward; see Wikipedia article on ward in LDS church.
- An area in business or of knowledge, research.
- 2012 January 1, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 1, page 23:
- We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
- (nautical) A certificate given by Trinity House to a pilot qualified to take navigational control of a ship in British waters.
- (computing) A sequence of code that is conditionally executed.
- (computing) A group of related files in a source control system, including for example source code, build scripts, and media such as images.
- (rail transport) A branch line.
SynonymsEdit
- (part of a tree): bough, limb, tillow, twig; see also Thesaurus:tree
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
woody part of a tree arising from the trunk
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part that divides like the branch of a tree
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creek or stream which flows into a larger river
location of an organization with several locations
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line of family descent
area in business or of knowledge, research
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nautical: pilot's certificate
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computer architecture: conditional sequence of code
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rail transport: branch line — see branch line
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
VerbEdit
branch (third-person singular simple present branches, present participle branching, simple past and past participle branched)
- (intransitive) To arise from the trunk or a larger branch of a tree.
- (intransitive) To produce branches.
- 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, "Life Loves Living," [2]:
- The tree throve and branched so heavily that the windows of Lower West and the Doll's Flat were darkened.
- 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, "Life Loves Living," [2]:
- (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) divide into separate parts or subdivisions.
- (intransitive, computing) To jump to a different location in a program, especially as the result of a conditional statement.
- (transitive, colloquial) To discipline (a union member) at a branch meeting.
- 2003, Paul Routledge, The Bumper Book of British Lefties (page 199)
- His staff were 'not journalists, but Communists', he maintained. Nonetheless, in 1948 his vigorous editorship took the paper's circulation to 120,000 a day. The following year, he was 'branched' by the National Union of Journalists for an intemperate attack on Fleet Street.
- 2003, Paul Routledge, The Bumper Book of British Lefties (page 199)
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to arise from the trunk or a larger branch of a tree
to produce branches
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to divide into separate parts or subdivisions
to jump to a different location in a program, especially as the result of a conditional statement
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
ReferencesEdit
- ^ “branch” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
Further readingEdit
branch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - branch (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Haitian CreoleEdit
EtymologyEdit
From French branche (“branch”).
NounEdit
branch