batch
Americannoun
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batches
plural
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a quantity or number coming at one time or taken together.
a batch of prisoners.
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the quantity of material prepared or required for one operation.
mixing a batch of concrete.
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the quantity of bread, cookies, dough, or the like, made at one baking.
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Computers.
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a group of jobs, data, or programs treated as a unit for computer processing.
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Glassmaking.
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a quantity of raw materials mixed in proper proportions and prepared for fusion into glass.
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the material so mixed.
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verb (used with object)
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batches,
present (3rd person singular)
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batched,
past participle, past
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batching
present participle
noun
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a group or set of usually similar objects or people, esp if sent off, handled, or arriving at the same time
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the bread, cakes, etc, produced at one baking
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the amount of a material needed for an operation
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Also called: batch loaf. a tall loaf having a close texture and a thick crust on the top and bottom, baked as part of a batch: the sides of each loaf are greased so that they will pull apart after baking to have pale crumby sides; made esp in Scotland and Ireland Compare pan loaf
verb
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to group (items) for efficient processing
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to handle by batch processing
verb
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(intr) (of a man) to do his own cooking and housekeeping
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to live alone
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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batchsimple
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batchessimple
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have batchedperfect
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has batchedperfect
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am batchingprogressive
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are batchingprogressive
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is batchingprogressive
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have been batchingperfect progressive
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has been batchingperfect progressive
Past
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batchedsimple
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had batchedperfect
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was batchingprogressive
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were batchingprogressive
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had been batchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of batch
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English bache “amount of bread produced in one baking,” Old English gebæc; akin to German Gebäck “pastry, cakes”; see origin at bake
Explanation
A batch is a completed group, collection, or quantity of something, especially something that's just been made. You might, for example, bake a batch of cookies to take to your new neighbor. A company that makes soap might deliver a batch, loaded on a truck, to a new store in Vermont, and if you manage a bakery you might declare, "That's it! This is our last batch of gingerbread until next year!" In computer lingo, a batch is, similarly, a group or collection of records. The Old English root, bæcce, means "something baked," from bacan, "bake."
Vocabulary lists containing batch
The Martian Chronicles
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Century 21 Accounting, 9e, Chapters 8-10
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"The MGMT Solution," Vocabulary from Chapter 18
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On tour with Mars, she even took over a kitchen at London’s Wembley Stadium and made a batch for the pop superstar and his band.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The first batch of the release will give priority to diesel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney utilised that role at the past two major tournaments but the Saudi Arabia-based pair are also in their thirties and were overlooked for the current batch of Nations League fixtures.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Yes, in my personal estimation, making an entire batch of soup is easier than a dedicated vegetable-chopping session.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
After obtaining a batch of newly hatched silk caterpillars, Maria faithfully fed them lettuce until their preferred food—white mulberry leaves—was in season.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
When police were called to investigate, they found more than 800 devices, packaged in batches of five, stacked into nine boxes, some wrapped in foil, others in bubble wrap.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
New “SNL” episodes usually arrive in batches of three and then the show takes a break for a few weeks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
Under the rules, those are the employees who would have to screen large batches of outgoing state ballots for compliance with the portal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
The LZ collaboration examines its experimental results in batches.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
It goes from 0 to 10, where 10 is for two things that are totally different and 1 or 2 might describe just the production-range differences between two batches of the same product.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Orders are picked and packed at stores and then moved to sortation centers to be batched based on neighborhood for delivery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
I feel it every time I walk into my mom’s house and discover she’s already made, batched, and frozen my favorite homemade candies, a quiet ritual she learned from her own mother.
From Salon ● Dec. 2, 2025
“App is doing >1000 poorly batched RPCs just to render a home timeline!”
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
Dr. Colleen Kraft of Emory University worries that batched testing - with its multiple rounds of screening for some patients - could slow test results, a key factor for getting those infected into quarantine.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 30, 2020
The miner had not "batched" in the hills for years without having learned how to cook.
From The Highgrader by D. C. Hutchison
The agency said that Mars Wrigley didn’t properly train the workers when they went to clean the Dove chocolate batching 20 micron tank.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 13, 2023
It noted that the workers fell into a batching tank - a tank used to mix ingredients - for Dove chocolate, a brand sold in the US.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2023
Vice president and head distiller Dave Smith later told me he likes batching this singular cocktail, whose beguiling component parts speak to the terroir and cultural melting pot of California's Bay Area.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2022
They’re batching cocktails to reduce waste, and are using their own furniture for seating.
From Seattle Times ● May 18, 2022
The students who lived in Heidelberg had us meet their families, and those who were batching in Heidelberg often had us come to their rooms.
From An American Idyll The Life of Carleton H. Parker by Cornelia Stratton Parker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
