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
Analysts said traders were presented with a "Goldilocks" batch of figures that provided a fillip to equities on Wall Street as the dealers revised lower the likelihood of a second successive interest rate hike.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Sales for the second batch “were definitely hurt by the delays. We missed July 4th, which was a key date,” Jonathan Silva said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 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
With only ten minutes before the gate opens, the men at the juice joint mix up another batch using water from the animal troughs.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
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
In a study published in Cell Reports Medicine, the scientists describe a scalable method for making consistent batches of cancer-targeting T cells from blood stem cells obtained from donated cord blood.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
Despite that, according to the whistleblower who contacted Blumenthal, the directive to reject entire batches if they included just one unverified ballot moved forward.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2026
I decided to do what I’d learned at Ari’s Cakes—make a few small batches of cupcake batter, each with different amounts of sugar.
From "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" by Janae Marks
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
Sortation centers receive packages for online orders from 30 to 40 surrounding Target stores that are sorted, batched and routed for delivery to local neighborhoods by a third-party carrier or Shipt, which Target owns.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 19, 2023
“App is doing >1000 poorly batched RPCs just to render a home timeline!”
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
The miner had not "batched" in the hills for years without having learned how to cook.
From The Highgrader by D. C. Hutchison
Time-blocking your calendar, batching similar tasks and prioritising certain bits of work can reduce mental overload and decision fatigue.
From BBC ● Jan. 3, 2026
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
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
Freezing, drying and canning summer produce, double batching meals and freezing baked goods are all proven strategies.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
"I'm batching up those letters to send sometime" "I'm batching up bottles to take to the recycling center."
From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Guy L. Steele
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.
